Unknown Enemy
by Ranowa Hikura
Summary: "The longer they let it rampage, the more people it took. It wouldn't be long until they were all on the floor, unconscious...or looking where Ness was heading, dead." -Sorceress of Shadows
1. Chapter 1

Hey all. This is my first SSB fic. Contains all characters from Brawl and Melee (except Young Link; Toon Link takes his place just fine). Just a note for you guys that I've never played about half of the games that characters represent in Brawl, so when talking about those characters, I'm most definitely going to get some stuff wrong. Sorry! (I count Ash and Squirtile, Ivysaur, and Charizard as four separate individuals)

**Prologue**

**43 Smashers remaining… **

Something wasn't quite right with Ness that day.

Lucas noticed it, but he couldn't find the opportunity to say anything. He noticed Ness moving slower than normal, breathing harder, wincing in pain. When asked nonchalantly if everything was all right, Ness had just nodded, and though Lucas didn't believe him there was nothing that he could do.

He noticed that when Marth had asked Ness for a little help in a handicapped battle against Ganondorf, Ness had just closed his eyes and grumbled something before reluctantly getting to his feet. That was why Lucas decided to tag along and watch, if for nothing but to make sure Ness was okay.

Lucas also brought along some popcorn because he did hope to watch Ganondorf toss him around a little; he loved his cousin, but the fact that most everybody preferred Ness over him in a fight was a little annoying.

* * *

><p>"Ness!" Marth shouted angrily as he danced lightly around Ganondorf, avoiding his slow attacks and trying to wear him down. "Stop playing around and help me!"<p>

"I'm sorry! I don't know what's wrong with me today," Ness apologized before shouting, "PK Fire!" Instead of a fireball emerging from his hands, a tiny flame flickered in the air for a short moment before disappearing entirely.

"What the…" Ness frowned before shaking his head. Well, maybe if fire wouldn't work today, electricity would. "PK thunder!" A small spark of electricity appeared on the tip of his finger instead of a thunderbolt, and it fizzed out in less than a second as well.

"_Ness!_" Marth cried. "What on earth are you doing?

"I'm sorry, Marth, I'm just feeling a little off today." Well, if PK abilities weren't working, then he would just have to make things physical. Just as he took out his bat, however, a smash ball entered the stage.

"Ness, hold him back here!" Marth told him as he began running towards the smash ball. "I'll get the final smash and finish him off!"

"Got it!" Ness grabbed Ganondorf and tried to throw him the other way, but found himself too exhausted to manage to lift Ganondorf up. The dark overlord broke his hold easily and brushed him aside, throwing Ness back several feet and took off in Marth's direction.

Ness, panting for breath, struggled to his hands and knees in time to see the smash ball shatter as Ganondorf's fist made contact with it. Marth immediately jumped to the ground and stayed low as Ness tried to jump out of the way, but he was so exhausted he couldn't manage to get more than an inch off the ground. Ganondorf began the transformation, freezing Ness in place…

* * *

><p>"Congratulations, Ness!" Marth snapped bitterly. "Thanks to you, I just lost against Ganondorf. <em>Ganondorf!<em> Next time I want to try out something new or difficult, I'll go with Lucas. At least he's dependable."

Ness nodded without opening his mouth; he didn't think he could speak without throwing up. Ever since the battle had ended, a new nausea and a fierce migraine were both telling him it was a very good idea to just go back to the Smash Mansion and go to sleep.

Still grumbling under his breath, Marth kept on walking. He failed to notice Ness pass out and fall flat on his face. "And another thing, you shouldn't-"

"Marth!" Lucas gasped, grabbing his arm and turning him around to look at Ness. "Look!"

Marth, Ganondorf, and Lucas all stared at Ness, waiting for him to get up. When he didn't move, they all rushed towards him, Lucas turning him over onto his back and exclaiming, "Ness! _Ness!_"

That was when they saw the blood.

_Don't worry, my other chapters will all be longer than this. What do you think?_


	2. Chapter 2

Wow, thanks for all the nice reviews! And Diabolos: Yeah, you're right. I made a typo- thanks for telling me; it's fixed now!

**Chapter 1**

**42 Smashers remaining… **

Ness was pale and sweating when Marth burst into the entrance to the Smash Mansion, carrying Ness in his arms. Lucas and Ganondorf hurried in behind him as several others rushed over, Dr. Mario at the front of the crowd. "What happened?" he asked urgently as Marth lay Ness down on a couch.

Lucas shrugged as he pushed his way through the people crowding around his cousin. "He couldn't use any PK abilities during the fight and he said he hasn't felt well since he woke up. He passed out on the way back and hasn't woken up since."

"We got worried when his nose just started bleeding. It wasn't from the fight and it wasn't from when he fell; it just started bleeding out of nowhere," Marth added in concern.

Dr. Mario nodded worriedly and tipped Ness's head back to try and stop the bleeding. "Someone go get me an ice pack!" he shouted, but Lucas shook his head.

"No need. PK Freeze!" he cried, summoning a huge block of ice to rest next to Dr. Mario. With a grim smile, Marth drew his sword and slashed through it, his blade turning into a blur of silver as he created a block of small ice cubes instead, which held its shape for a moment before collapsing into a heap.

"Show-offs, the both of you," Dr. Mario muttered under his breath before grabbing some of the ice and holding it to Ness's nose, trying to stop the bleeding before yanking his hand back. "Damn, he's burning up! Marth, hold the ice here, let me take his temperature."

Ness moaned softly and continued tossing and turning as Dr. Mario took out a thermometer from wherever he kept his endless supplies of pills to throw at people, using it to take Ness's temperature.

Ten seconds later, he withdrew the device and swore when he read the temperature. "105! God, how did no one notice this until now?" When he was met with silence, Dr. Mario sighed before gesturing for someone to come forward and help. "Come on, pick him up, get him into bed. He probably just has a bad case of the flu."

"But what about the nose bleed?"

Dr. Mario shrugged. "Probably just a delayed reaction to the fall or the fight. Sometimes the nose won't start bleeding for several seconds, Lucas. Now, someone pick him up."

Roy came forward, muttering under his breath, "You've always got to pick on the strong people, huh? Roy, do this, Roy, do that. Why don't you ask for someone else to help you for once?"

Ike groaned. "You know, Roy, nobody asked for you specifically. You didn't have to do anything. Now, though, we all have to suffer because we listen to you complain."

Glaring at him, Roy picked up Ness and followed Lucas towards Ness's room, muttering something about a stuck-up newbie under his breath. Ike just rolled his eyes before beckoning for Marth to follow him and left.

"Nobody fight with Ness until he's better," Dr. Mario ordered as he followed Roy. "I know he's a bit of a lug head, but don't humor him for a while. If you really need someone with PK abilities, use Lucas. There's nothing wrong with him, you know.

Lucas smiled slightly to himself. Finally, someone who didn't think he was terrible just because he didn't move quite as quickly as Ness! Maybe he wasn't as doomed to obscurity as he thought.

After the first day of Ness remaining unconscious without any sign of waking up, people started to get worried. Dr. Mario assured everyone that he could still just have bad case of the flu and to wait before panicking. By the third day, they were panicking.

Most people were pointing fingers at Ganondorf and accusing him of doing something different with his Final Smash while others pointed out that Lucas said that Ness felt bad before the fight. Since nobody else was getting sick, though, people weren't too worried. After all, if it wasn't contagious, it wasn't like this one case it would lead to an epidemic. Even Lucas wasn't too worried about his own cousin; since Ness wasn't getting worse, they all assumed that it was just the flu.

"Hey, Ganondorf!" Marth called when he saw the evil king polishing his extraordinarily impressive and utterly worthless sword. "You up for a rematch? Me, you, and my other friends from Akaneia? Come on, what do you say?"

Ganondorf just rolled his eyes. "You're just embarrassed that I kicked your ass when you had someone else on your team, Marth."

"No, actually, everybody thinks I did well since Ness was so sick. So this will be a chance for me to gain back some repse- um, I mean, for you to get your reputation back," Marth said with a cough. "If you beat me, Roy, _and_ Ike, maybe people will stop saying that you were better before. You know, before you gained all that weight and got so slow- I mean, started flashing your worthless sword everywhere. Oh, no, I mean-"

"You want to insult me, Marth?" Ganondorf exclaimed, getting to his feet and pushing Marth back. "All right, then, fine! Let's go! Right here, right now!"

Holding back a laugh, Marth nodded. "All right, then. Let me get Roy and Ike and we can do this!"

"Oh, scared to fight me without your posse to back you up? All right, fine! It'll just make your defeat that much more crushing!"

As Marth ran to get Ike and Roy, his face was as red as Mario's hat from repressed laughter.

For the three heroes from the land of Akaneia, fighting someone as slow as Ganondorf was a piece of cake. In fact, they began playing monkey in the middle with a poke ball, just to entice Ganondorf into attacking. Well, Ike and Marth were the ones playing with the poke ball. Roy was using this as an opportunity to get his breath back.

When Marth had asked him to join in and help kick Ganondorf's ass, he had only agreed because he knew the fight would be easy. As it was, Roy had yet to do much of anything besides sit back and let the others do the fighting. His head was killing him.

A voice in the back of his mind was warning him that this was how Ness had felt just before passing out, and that he had yet to wake up. But Roy thought that he was fine; just a cold. Clutching his stomach as another wave of nausea hit him, Roy fell to his knees, barely managing to catch himself with his hands before he hit the ground.

"Come on, Roy," he muttered under his breath. "Get up!" Planting his sword in the ground, he managed to force himself back into a standing position.

"Can't get us, can you, Ganondorf?" Marth taunted before grabbing him and holding him still. "Ike, now!"

Ike ran forward, striking Ganondorf with one great blow of his sword and shouting, "_Great Aether!"_ As Ike launched into the air, hitting Ganondorf over and over in a whirlwind of pain, Marth gave a satisfied smirk and turned to look at Roy.

Ike was just about to go in for the kill when a panicked shout from below him caused him to hesitate. "Ike! Ganondorf! Get down here, now!" Marth cried, and they both looked down to see him kneeling oner an unconscious Roy. Ike and Ganondorf looked back at each other before Ike delivered one more powerful blow, shooting him towards the ground like a missile before gently descending himself to where Marth was working on Roy.

He was sprawled on his back, sweating profusely, his skin pale… and a trail of blood coming from his nose.


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks for all the nice reviews! And an answer to a FAQ: no, just because someone gets sick doesn't automatically mean they're dead. No one's dead yet. And no, don't take that as a promise that someone's going to die. I can't promise anything in that regard. Onward!

**Chapter 2**

**41 Smashers remaining… **

It was complete chaos when Samus finally walked into the Smash Mansion, carrying Roy and grumbling under her breath. "Where do you want him?" she asked, and Dr. Mario led her to same room Ness was in and gesturing for her to lay him down in there.

"Sorry for making you go out and get him, Samus, but if this is contagious then we can't risk anybody else catching it. You, on the other hand, wear a special suit that no viruses can get through.

"Yeah, sure," she muttered under her breath before laying Roy down. "Need anything else, just call."

"Well, I need you now. Marth, get in here. Everybody else, stay out there."

With a confused frown, Marth followed Dr. Mario's instructions, walking inside and shutting the door behind him. "What? I didn't do anything," he complained as Dr. Mario handed him a surgical mask.

"Put that on. Marth, since Roy carried Ness yesterday and is the only one who got sick, I can only guess that it spreads through physical contact. And since you've had the most contact with Roy since then..."

"Wait- you think I next? You think I'm going to get sick now? No!" Marth snapped, turning to glare at him furiously. "What about Ganondorf? He and Ness fought yesterday; I don't see you calling him in here and talking to him!"

"Well, Lucas isn't sick either, and he slept in the same room as Ness! It has to only be exchanged through prolonged physical contact. If Ganondorf gets sick, then I'll reconsider. Until then, I'm going to have to quarantine you, just to be-"

"I don't think so!" Marth snarled, drawing his sword and advancing on Dr. Mario. "I'm not staying locked up in here. If I'm not sick, all you're doing is locking me up with the source! I'll get sick, prove you right, and probably spend a week in bed with the flu! This whole thing is an overreaction! Roy just got sick with the flu and you've got us all running around like lab rats terrified that there's some infectious killer virus out there when, really, it's just-"

"If it's the flu, how do you explain the blood?"

"I don't need to; you're the doctor!"

"_Hey!"_ Samus shouted, interceding before it came to blows. "Both of you, calm down! Marth, I think Dr. Mario's right about you possibly being next. But there's no need to keep him here with Ness and Roy; if you're wrong then he could just get sick from exposure! Just tell the others that Marth may be sick and that they shouldn't touch him for a day to make sure that he's fine. Anyway, that's not what we need to focus on." They all turned to look at Ness and Roy, who were both still unconscious and mumbling restlessly in their feverish sleep.

Dr. Mario sighed. "You're right," he admitted. "I've never seen anything like it. Ness has been out of it for three days and there's been absolutely no change in his condition. Roy's probably headed the same way as him if we don't do something."

"Well, what should we do? You're the doctor; it's your call."

Dr. Mario looked up at Samus and sighed apologetically. "Until someone else gets sick, all I can say is it targets humans, because no one but humans have gotten sick. Of course, that could also be simply because no one else has been exposed to it… how much do we know about the land surrounding the Smash Mansion?"

"Nothing. I've been here since this place was built and no one ever goes exploring. We don't come out here to get involved in more adventures, we come here to get away from the dangerous missions that await us back home. No one has ever gone exploring, as far as I know," Samus said, watching as Dr. Mario nodded thoughtfully.

Finally, he said, "Well, since whatever this is is clearly spreading, I can say it's either an infection or caused by something in the environment. And because Ness has't changed in three days, that rules out infection, which only leaves an environmental cause… Samus? I think you need to go exploring."

It was Samus's turn to get angry. "Hey, what? No, I don't think so. And what are you doing in charge here, anyway? If anybody's going to be making decisions, it should be Mario, Link, me, and all the other original Smashers! Not some knock-off half-clone of an original!"

"Look, it's not like I'm asking you to go set off on another epic adventure and risk your life or anything. Just check things out, see if you find anything weird that could explain why Roy and Ness are so sick. And since when was seniority so important?"

Before Samus could retaliate, Marth took a turn playing mediator and said quickly, "Hey, we're all tired and none of us are in a good mood, we don't have to start a fight now. Samus, come on, you should go. You can take your ship so if something changes back here, we can tell you. Besides, that means you don't have to take care of all the sick people- that'll be Olimar's job, since he's the only other one with a suit."

Samus looked between Marth and Dr. Mario for a moment before throwing her hands up in the air and giving up. "Fine, you both win. I'll go. But I want to know if anything at all changes back here- don't send me out on some unnecessary, wild goose chase just because you neglected to mention that these two had the flu after all."

All the other Smashers- minus Dr. Mario, Ness, and Roy- watched as Samus's ship flew from out into the unknown, leaving behind safety in favor for adventure. "I feel bad for her," Link confessed Zelda as they watched her depart. "She spends all her time saving her galaxy from Space Pirates and just when she finally gets sometime to relax, she has to go out exploring again."

Zelda nodded in agreement. "At least, after we save Hyrule, we get to take a nice vacation out here. I hope, for everyone's sake, that this is _just_ the flu and not something worse…"

Dr. Mario was just heading towards the large pile of ice cubes given to him by Lucas- courtesy of his 'PK Freeze' maneuver- when the door to the makeshift infirmary burst open to reveal a panicked Toon Link. He was panting for breath and clearly frightened, blue eyes wide in shock.

"Someone else is sick."


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks for the reviews!

Note: Yes, Ash is Pokemon Trainer. Come on, we all know that's who it's supposed to be.

**Chapter 3**

**40 Smashers remaining…**

Yoshi falling sick was much more frightening than Roy and Ness combined. For one, Yoshi was a dinosaur, revealing that the disease, whatever it was, wasn't limited to just humans. So all the animals and Pokemon that had thought they were safe were now just as worried as the others.

But that wasn't all. Yoshi's allergies had been acting up lately and he hadn't left his room in five days because they were so insufferable he preferred to just wait inside until they were over. He had had absolutely no contact with anybody except Mario, who'd told him through the door about Ness and Roy. The fact that Yoshi hadn't been anywhere near Ness or Roy said that the virus didn't spread through direct contact. There were rumors that it was airborne, that nobody was safe. The only thing that was keeping everyone sane was the fact that Ness's condition hadn't changed at all.

"Okay, everybody, okay!" Dr. Mario shouted, trying to calm them down. "I called this meeting to tell everyone what's going on, officially, and to propose an idea to help fix things. But everybody needs to calm down!"

"Why the hell should we calm down?" Captain Falcon demanded. "You've got three people sick and dying up there and all you've done is send one bounty hunter out to search for the cause! I don't want a cause, I want a cure!"

There was a chorus of shout of agreement with Captain Falcon, only to be silenced when Link climbed atop the table and stunned everyone with a Skyward Strike. "_Hey!"_ he shouted. "Everybody, be quiet! Arguing isn't going to help anything."

They all around at each other before looking expectantly towards Dr. Mario- he may be a convenient target for their anger; a punching bag, if you will- but he was the only one here who was a doctor, after all.

"All right. Since we don't know how this is spreading, if Samus hasn't found out anything or more people or sick by this time tomorrow, I say we should send out the Star Fox team- with Wolf, of course- to look for any causes of this, like Samus is. Pit and Meta-Knight, I'll send you out as a last result, because you don't have a ship to communicate back with us if they find something."

Charizard let a throaty roar, and Ash translated, "He wants to know if he can go looking, to, since he can fly."

Dr. Mario nodded uncertainly. "Well, I don't know much about Pokemon- if he can fly out while leaving you back here, that's fine. But I'm hesitant to send him, Pit, or Meta-Knight out because they won't be protected if they run into the source of the virus."

"Look," Mario cut in, "As of now, we don't have to do anything, right? Until someone else gets sick, that is."

Samus was flying over the ground at a low altitude, searching for something, she wasn't sure what. Her suit and ship would tell her if it found anything very unusual, but since she had no idea what exactly she was supposed to be looking for…

_"Unusual energy-patterns detected thirty miles to the northwest. Shows patterns similar to life-forms, but energy spikes are above normal readings."_ Her ship announced in a cool, female voice, prompting Samus to smile.

"Well, I'm in luck," Samus said to herself, typing in the coordinates to send her ship in the right direction before flying higher- if people ended up being behind this disease and they were, in fact, down there, no need to attract their attention.

On her way there, she ordered her ship to analyze the energy spikes for pattern before turning to the map, watching as she got closer and closer to the possible source of disease and resigned to wait for a couple minutes- but, surprisingly, her ship didn't take more than twenty seconds to report back.

"There are periodic spikes in a strange form of energy that is not in our databank. Seems most comparable to the elemental energy of light and dark encountered in Aether's two dimensions, but is not the same elements. Signs suggest seismic activity, unusually high temperatures, unnatural wind patterns, and strong precipitation. Strong caution when approaching these strange energy patterns is advised."

Samus groaned inwardly. In all likelihood, she was just nearing an erupting volcano or something similar and was overreacting.

Mass hysteria was the word of the day at the Smash Mansion. If anybody so much as coughed, he'd be dragged against his well to be examined by Dr. Mario. Olimar, the only one of the Smashers who had an air tight suit, checked on Marth and reported that he was showing no symptoms of the disease, so Dr. Mario had released him. Now that everyone was paranoid, though, no one would so much as touch Marth without a Hazmat suit on.

The pokemon had all retreated to their poke balls, knowing they'd be safe there. Fox and his team were staying inside their arwings in case they needed to leave in search for the disease- everyone who didn't have a containment-free place to hide was just sticking as far away from the others as possible.

Ness, Roy, and Yoshi were now all unconscious with high fevers. Their noses still bled periodically, and by now, everybody was certain that it could no longer be 'just' the flu.

Battles were all postponed indefinitely, tempers were high, and all it took was one wrong word to start a fight- as was happening between Link and Lucas. Lucas had just happened to say, "I used to be a normal hero, but then I took an arrow to the knee and ended up stuck inside here," within the earshot of Link.

"Hey, why do you call care what goes on within the Skyrim universe! I have my most epic adventure around the same time as all that Skyrim stuff is going on, but NO, you don't hear people saying that they got knocked in mid-air by some redheaded maniac! You don't see them mimicking my amazing 'Skyward strike' move! No, all they do is reference the Skyrim universe by talking about an 'arrow to the god damn knee!'"

"If you're so mad about it, why don't you do something? Maybe it's just because your adventure was less interesting than Skyrim's world."

Zelda and Ganondorf ran to Link's defense, and a fight would of broken out had Ike not shown up, gotten annoyed very quickly, and forced them all to the ground with two powerful blows of his thick blade. Many scuffles like Link and Lucas's erupted in such a short time that some were saying that they would of all beaten each other to death before this disease could kill them.

Unfortunately, the disease was progressing much faster than they knew. Samus had been gone for five hours when Mewtwo and Lucario ran into each other after emerging from their poke balls. They began fighting within five minutes. All the other pokemon joined, Lucas came to help his friend Ash, and soon half the house was dominated by sword fights, bursts of fire, and shouts of violence.

Marth and Meta-Knight had teamed up to take down Toon Link, who was wreaking havoc among the Skyrim supporters. The three had just engaged in a whirlwind of silver swords when a fat lump fell in the middle of their fight, disrupting the battle.

It was Wario. He was sweating and clearly had a high fever.

His nose was bleeding.

_I had a really terrible day, so cheer me up with some reviews, all right? Pretty please...  
><em>


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks for all the reviews- sorry I couldn't reply to them last chapter! Fanfiction's email notification system was down and I didn't even realize I got so many reviews for 3 and 4 until I got eight emails all at once. So... Sorceress of Shadows: Actually, this entire story is already pre-written, but you inspired me to possibly kill off a few. Not going to say anything to spoil it, though. And NOW I'm using your summary, as I only just saw it. Credit goes to you!

**Chapter 4**

**33 Smashers remaining…**

Wario wasn't the only one. During the fight, others had passed out with nose bleeds that were only found after panicked screams began echoing around the Smash Mansion once Wario was discovered.

Donkey Kong, Luigi, Mr. Game and Watch, Peach, Sonic, and Snake were all being taken to other room that weas being converted into makeshift sick bays by Olimar- everybody else was too afraid to even touch them.

Ten sick in four days. Pokemon, the only race not to have lost any to this mysterious disease, were none too confident that one of them wouldn't fall ill and were just as frightened as the others. Dr. Mario and Olimar had their hands full with patients and the other Smashers were really just sitting ducks until Samus or one of the Star Fox team reported back, who had flown out without protest once the other seven had gotten sick.

Everyone was saying that it was only a matter of time until everyone was either sick or this disease started killing.

* * *

><p>Samus stared at the picture her ship was showing her of the ground below in complete horror.<p>

This planet was supposed to be deserted of intelligent life. In all the years the Smash Mansion had been there, no one or thing had approached the Smashers. But the images on her ship's monitor made it very clear that no natural phenomenon was responsible for this disease.

A team of eight or so people was making their way towards the Smash Mansion through a range of low mountains, moving boulders aside and heavy logs into the air like it was nothing at all. They were dressed as warriors but things were moving out of their way seemingly on their command.

She's seen a lot of very high tech stuff in the Chozo civilizations that she'd grown up in, but nothing like this. Rocks that had been lying there for probably hundreds of years were lifting up and just moving for these people- and even her databanks, with combined knowledge from Space Pirate and Chozo and the Galactic Federation's knowledge didn't recognize them. If they weren't behind the disease, then she had no idea what was.

Samus opened up a link to the Smash Mansion, sighing with relief when Marth showed up on the computer screen. "Hey, Marth? I ran into some warriors out here- I don't know who or what they are, but I think they're the source of the disease. But I don't want to approach them without backup; they look pretty powerful."

Marth stared at her in confusion, asking, "Samus, didn't you go north east?" When she nodded, he responded with, "Then that's impossible."

_Two hours previously_

Fox, Falco, and Wolf flew in a tight formation southwest from the Smash Mansion, searching on the ground for any signs of a world ravaged by the same disease that was attacking them now. It looked like Earth, though- similar flora and fauna, virtually identical land features… nothing akin to the worlds the Star Fox team had flown over countless times to save the galaxy from Andross- more like the landscape around Corneria than anything else.

Everything was normal… until Wolf pulled his ship up sharply and shouted in alarm, directing everybody's attention to the geyser that had suddenly shot up out of the ground about two miles away. It retreated back towards the ground several seconds later, leaving the Star Fox team stunned.

After a few seconds passed in silence, Falco asked slowly, "Well? We going to check it out or what?"

"Well, it could have been caused a natural phenomenon… but since we don't have any other leads, lets go. But land so we can approach on foot; we'd be more visible from the air and I don't want to wind up as a flying target for whatever that water was."

The other two obliged, and soon, Fox, Falco, and Wolf were approaching the source of the water. And before too long they were able to see three people trapped on the other side of a river moving too fast and clearly too deep for them to cross- one raised his hands and the river rose as well, creating another geyser.

The cause of the disease.

* * *

><p>When Samus heard that the Star Fox team had also found a team of people using elemental energy, she was shocked.<p>

Eight people were in the mountains north of the Smash Mansion, three were south of it- were there others? And according to Marth, the people spotted by Star Fox were headed in the Smasher's direction, just like the eight she was following were.

"So, what should I do? Do you want me to attack them now, before they get closer to the mansion, or-"

Marth shook his head. "No, no. You're outnumbered, and-"

"-And we don't know what these people are capable of," Ike said as he walked behind Marth, nodding at Samus. "We've got a problem. ROB just got sick."

Marth rolled his eyes while Samus just laughed. "Ike, ROB's a robot. He can't get sick."

"Well, he's not sick like a human would be, but his system overheated and he shut down; we tried shocking him but he's still in sleep mode. Dr. Mario even agreed that this has to be the virus."

A heavy silence hung after his words as Samus and Marth realized he wasn't kidding. This disease was really targeting everything- it was only a matter of time until it killed someone… and anybody could be next.

"So what do you want me to do? Whoever these people are with their elemental energy, they're like nothing I've ever seen. The Chozo used powerful technology to do something similar but these people, they just wave their hands and nature is in their hands. And since ROB's down, maybe they can control technology too. If they can, they could theoretically incapacitate me in seconds."

"Keep following them, for now." All three looked at Link, who had just walked in Samus's line of sight. "Now that ROB's sick and these strange warriors are headed our way, we don't have much of a choice. If many more get sick, we'll be outnumbered, and we still don't how to fight them… we're probably going to leave and see what happens when these people get to the mansion and it's empty."


	6. Chapter 6

Thanks for all the reviews! Sorry I didn't update until now. Homework kept me busy until today, and then I was reading the Hunger Games for the first time today.

At Anonymous: Erm... yes, there is a reviewer named 'Sorceress of Shadows'. She suggested I change the summary to that and I copied and pasted it into the summary and gave her credit.

**Chapter**** 5**

**32 Smashers remaining…**

"I guess everybody's in favor, then?" Mario asked, the leader of the remaining Smashers, by consensus. When no noises of opposition were made, Mario nodded firmly and stood up. "Good. Everybody, get moving. We don't have much time."

Everyone got to their feet and started moving- everyone but Pit and Charizard to go move the sick to Meta Knight's Halberd, which was heading west- Pit and Charizard, the only others who could fly, were heading east. They wanted to try and find any other elemental warriors headed in the direction of the Smash Mansion, to be as prepared as possible.

Ash patted Charizard affectionately on the head and said, "You keep safe out there, okay? Ill see you in a couple days."

The fire pokemon roared happily before stretching his wings and jumping into the air. Pit and Meta Knight nodded at the crowd of Smashers hurrying to the halberd, then took off into the air as well.

"Hurry!" Dr. Mario called as Olimar and Pokemon, who still seemed to be immune to the disease, carried stretcher after stretcher of sick Smashers onto the ship. "We have to get out of here soon."

"Well, you know, we don't really have a plan besides flying off west and hoping Samus or one of the Star Fox team reports back. We don't really have anything to hurry up _for_," Mario pointed out, within Toon Link's earshot. He gasped.

"Star Fox!" he exclaimed. "Oh, no- did we ever manage to get in contact with them? They were going to attack those elemental bastards- did anyone ever stop them?"

His worried question was met with horror-struck expressions from everyone who'd heard- no, they had not alerted the Star Fox team to their new decision; not that they'd had any way to. Once they had left their arwings, the Smashers had had no way to contact them.

"Now!" Fox shouted, and he, Falco, and Wolf sprang into action. The beasts launched themselves at the three unsuspecting humans, or whatever these elemental warriors were, as they finally managed to cross the river, but the Star Fox team didn't get far.

Before they knew it, the Star Fox team was struggling to back up fast enough to get out of reach of the three's blades, who didn't seem to be taken by surprise at all. One, who looked the most human except for his blue hair, easily dispatched Fox before turning to the others, who were still trapped in battle. With a raised hand and not much else, he caused ice crystals to form out of thin air around them, freezing them slowly in place.

Fox stared at them in horror as the others turned to him, hands raised in a similar fashion to then lie ones. He ran as fast as he could, and when he chanced a look over his shoulder they were sending streams of fire after him- and if he didn't speed up, he'd be cooked medium well in three seconds.

Shouting in alarm, he dived into the river just as the fire rocketed over his head. Being the fox that we was, he was able to swim faster than humans and by the time the elemental warriors had made it to the river, Fox was on the other side.

Panting for breath, Fox narrowed his eyes and watched as the trio discussed something for a moment before turning around and walking back towards Falco and Wolf, who were still frozen in place, unable to move. Seeing Fox pulling out his gun, Falco shouted, "Get out of here, McCloud! _Now! _They're too strong for you!"

"I'm not leaving you behind!" Fox yelled as he took aim at one of the elemental warriors, who didn't seem to care about him at all.

"You can't fight them!" Wolf shouted at him. "Get out of here now! Get help and come back then!"

Fox hesitated, but he waited a moment too long. The blue-haired one that had trapped Falco and Wolf raised his hand and suddenly, they all disappeared. The three elemental warriors, Falco and Wolf- just like that. They were gone.

Still staring at the spot where the rest of his team had been in horror, Fox called his arwing and ordered it to come to his current location. He had to tell the other Smashers what had happened and get back Falco and Wolf, now.

"Pika, pika!" Pikachu exclaimed, jumping up and curling into a tiny ball in Ash's arms when the Pokemon Trainer walked into the room.

"Well hey, Pikachu," he said, fondly patting him on the head. "What's up?"

"Pika pika pika! _Pika!_" Pikachu exclaimed. "_Piiiiiiika!"_

Frowning in concern, Ash held Pikachu out in front of him, trying to decipher what he was saying, but the pokemon was talking too fast. "Pikachu, slow down. What's going-"

"He's trying to say that Ness just got worse," Captain Falcon said as he entered the room and reached out for Pikachu. "He doesn't have a fever anymore and his heart rate's slowing down. Give me Pikachu; we need the Pokemon to help Olimar since no one else is allowed near the sick people."

Holding Pikachu tighter, Ash gestured for Captain Falcon to follow as he walked along the deck of the Halberd, a hot wind blowing dust into his face as the ship increased in speed, as he hurried to the the sick bay. "Wait, isn't that good? I mean, no fever and I'm guessing his pulse was a little fast before; doesn't'-"

"But he's not getting better, Ash. Dr. Mario looked at him and said the fever went away because Ness's immune system is shutting down. He's still sick, but his body's getting too weak to fight it- obviously explains the low heart rate, too."

"You mean… he's… dying?' Ash asked slowly, closing his eyes as a familiar pang of nausea hit him. He'd felt a little off ever since boarding the Halberd but had discounted it as just his fear of heights acting up. Nowadays, anybody who felt sick in the morning ended up in the sick bay that afternoon. Ash was praying that that wasn't the case- that he was fine.

When Captain Falcon nodded grimly in agreement , Ash closed his eyes and, still holding Pikachu, fell back over the side of the ship.

Pikachu cried out in terror gripped Ash's sleeve, using a burst of electricity to rise up above the ship. Captain falcon reached and grabbed Ash's hand, yanking him and, consequently, Pikachu, back to safety.

When he saw the blood on Ash's face, he instantly dropped the Pokemon Trainer to the ground and turned to run to get Dr. Mario. Pikachu nuzzled his head into Ash's neck, fur bristling with electricity as he growled angrily, as if he could scare the infection away.

It wasn't until Lucario emerged from the ship that anybody learned of what had happened to Ash, though. He'd actually been looking for Pikachu, because someone else had just been found passed out in the hallway- Captain Falcon.

The longer they let this disease rampage, the more people it took. It wouldn't be long until they were all on the floor, unconscious...or looking at where Ness was headed, dead.


	7. Chapter 7

Thanks for all the reviews! Sorry for not updating. More Hunger Games- now I'm finished with the series- but, more importantly, I got very sick out of nowhere. But I think I'm better now... perhaps... so without further ado, Chapter 8!

**Chapter 6**

**30 Smashers remaining…**

Wolf and Falco, still paralyzed, watched as the moment he appeared, the blue-haired creature fell to his knees in exhaustion, gasping frantically.

"Well, that was smart," one with blonde hair, the only female in the group, said. "That was _so_ smart, Ace. Not only did you let the fox get away, you're exhausted. How long will it take you to get your power back?"

Glaring at her, Ace growled, "I told you not to call me that. And I'll be fine soon- plus, if that Fox keeps wondering around outside for too long, he'll get sick too."

The other male, with blue skin and blue hair slightly darker than Ace's, just shook his head. "Ace, M, you're both wrong. We have to show these people that we're serious- letting the fox escape and his fate be unknown is a bad idea. Ace, you, especially should know that underestimating people is a bad idea."

"Like you're one to talk!"

The trio started arguing, completely ignoring Falco and Wolf- they didn't notice that the two animals could now move.

When Wolf made a small gesture to indicate attacking them, Falco shook his head. When Ace and M began shouting at each other, he took the opportunity and said quietly, "We should call our arwings out here to cause a distraction. If we can get these guys to leave for a second, then we can hide and attack later. We can't fight them now."

Wolf made a low, disgusted noise but nodding grudgingly, not happy to just sit here and do nothing- he'd rather be kicking Ace's ass. But Falco was right; attacking these creatures again would be a huge mistake, especially seeing how well their first attempt had worked out.

He and Falco both called their arwings and ordered them to fly out to wherever the hell they were- they were outside somewhere, in a small clearing of trees that none of them recognized. Of course, that wasn't saying very much, since none of them had explored much of this world, before today.

* * *

><p>Ike stood at the helm of the Halberd, his arms crossed, braced against the warm, powerful wind blowing in his face, dust particles landing in his dark hair.<p>

With this sickness spreading, people had all tried to stick close to each other- no one wanted a repeat of what Ash had gone through; falling off the Halberd into oblivion. If Pikachu and Captain Falcon hadn't been there, Ash would probably be dead right now.

He, on the other hand, had decided to leave so he could be by himself. Firstly, because staying in a room full of people who may or may not be infected with a deadly, contagious illness wasn't wise… but also because he was worried about others besides himself.

Roy had fallen sick only a day after Ness and now, Ness was, in all likelihood, dying. Roy would be next. Then only he and Marth would be left from Akaneia. And at the rate people were getting sick, he and Marth wouldn't last much longer.

The obvious solution was that they had to spread out. The more people that got sick, the more rapidly whatever this was spread. However, if they separated, then it wouldn't matter that the disease was contagious. They would still have the danger of getting it from the environment, where it had originally come from, but at least they couldn't catch it from each other. But no one wanted to mention the obvious solution because of the fact that if someone got sick after the Smashers separated, they would pass out, all alone in the wilderness.

With a heavy sigh, Ike got down on one knee, peering over the edge of the ship and watching as the ground rushed past below. Down below could be those elemental warriors, the cause of the disease, the only predators in this unknown, unexplored world. They could be on the earth below, just waiting for a chance to strike.

Ike's paranoia was more than just aimless worrying, for at that moment, the ship shattered, a pillar of fire rocketing up through the middle. Ike whirled around and gave a shout of alarm, running forward even as the quick blast of flames disappeared, leaving the ship destroyed. Both halves began to fall towards the ground, picking up speed rapidly and breaking into smaller pieces as the force of gravity became too much for the ship. Ike gave a panicked shout, but nothing could be heard over the screaming air as the ship plummeted to the ground.

When the floor he was standing on broke apart and revealed that his section of the ship was falling straight on the edge of a lake, he didn't give it a second thought; Ike just dived off in the direction of the water. No sense in staying on the ship and either crashing to his death on dry land or getting trapped in the wreckage of the Halberd if it crashed in the lake.

Ike entered the frigid water with and automatically gasped as the cold surrounded him, breathing in water and only causing him to fight to make it the surface harder. He broke through the water just as part of the Halberd crashed into the lake, creating a powerful wave that pushed him to the shore.

Coughing violently and crawling forward on his hands and knees, Ike collapsed as soon as he was on dry land, coughing water out of his throat and trying to force himself to stop shaking. He heard a huge crash from some distance away and knew another part of the ship had landed, but it was so far away Ike had no reason to expect to ever find it.

Still coughing slightly, Ike rolled onto his back and pushed himself up onto his elbows, frowning at the remains of the Halberd floating in the water. He saw several blurry figures struggling to the surface and Ike tried to move forward to help them, but he was still too weak to jump back into the water. Coughing again, Ike dug his sword into the loose sand to force himself to his feet and stumbled towards the lake, trying to see who was in the ocean. It looked like Marth… maybe Squirtile… Dr. Mario…. and _Roy._

Roy was still unconscious as he floated slowly towards the top of the lake, and Ike had to fight not to rush into the water and drag the limp body onto dry land- simple physics; Roy would float to the surface and then, when he was stronger, Ike could swim out and pull him to safety. If Ike went out there now, he most likely drown.

Squirtile made it to dry land first. The water pokemon practically flew out of the water, slowing down when he reached the sand. Squirtile crawled over to Ike and jumped into his lap, looking up at him with wide, soulful eyes.

"Hey, Squirtile," Ike said with a small, weak smile and patted his shell affectionately. "Hey, mind doing me a favor and going back into the water to get Roy?"

He didn't have to ask twice. At the mention of going back into the water, Squirtile was already out of Ike's arms and dashing for the lake's shore again as Dr. Mario and Marth finally broke the surface, neither one strong enough to swim very fast, but they were making progress.

Marth made it back first, then Dr. Mario, both soaking wet, coughing up water, and exhausted. "Hey, over here!" Ike called in a hoarse voice. He sat up a little straighter as Dr. Mario collapsed, Marth on his hands and knees beside him. Squirtile was swimming back to shore, carrying a limp Roy behind him. Ike moved slowly to the shore, still coughing slightly, so he could talk with Dr. Mario and Marth.

"Hey," he said, slipping into a sitting position when he was close enough to talk without yelling.

"Ike! What…. what just happened?" Marth asked with a wet cough, clutching his chest painfully and wincing slightly.

He shook his head helplessly. "I'm not sure. I think some of those elemental warriors headed towards the Smash Mansion did… something with fire, maybe? But we don't have much of a chance of finding the others now. The winds were pretty strong and the ship broke up into so many pieces…"

"Squirtile Squirtile!" the pokemon cried as he scampered onto dry land, Roy's cape tied around his neck like a child playing super hero. If Ike hadn't been so worried about Roy, he might have laughed- but not now.

"Come here, guy," he said, beckoning for Squirtile to come over. He untied the cape from the pokemon's neck with one hand and patted him appreciatively on the head with the other, Marth looking over Roy worriedly.

"He looks okay. Well… no worse than before. But I don't want to take any chances. Doc, get over here!" Marth called, glancing up at Dr. Mario, who was still collapsed on his back, breathing hard. "Get over here _now!_"

* * *

><p>Samus coughed, the noise hidden by her suit from the elemental warriors she was tracking. She'd been following these four for over a day now, only stopping when they did to grab a quick, one hour nap. She was exhausted and couldn't help but wonder why they weren't.<p>

"Wait!"

Her head jerked up as the one of the women in the group, with light green hair tied back in a ponytail, raising her hand to stop the group. "It's prediction. I've been paying attention to the other groups out there and I think the original three are up to something."

One of the other girls, with pointed ears, silver hair, and vibrant green eyes nodded vehemently. "I'm getting something too. I think… the other Smashers left the Mansion. They're spread out in about five groups now." The girl with green hair walked over and grasped the girl with silver hair's hands as her emerald eyes lit up. "Ace captured two of the Smashers. He's currently tracking another one."

"Mind Read," the girl with green hair added on, as if translating. "The other things won't be as clear, because she's simply predicting what's going to happen."

The other girl continued speaking in a low monotone. "Forest fires. They're going to be hunting for Smashers. All over forest. All over. All over. All ove-"

"Sev!" the other girl cried out, snapping her out of her trance. "Okay. We need to get over to that forest. Sev, can you track them?"

'Sev' shook her head to clear it, then nodded. "Yes. I know the general direction. If I transform, I'll head in the right direction until I catch their scent."

Samus stared in amazement as Sev fell onto all fours and growled, trembling violently before howling, then transformed into a wolf.

_A wolf._

Thankfully, she didn't have time to stare in horror- she passed out right as Sev howled again, tripping over a rock in front of her and tumbling forward onto the path, unconscious. Her nose was bleeding.


	8. Chapter 8

Thanks for the reviews! Just so you know, I count the Ice Climbers as one Smasher in my whole 'X Smashers remaining' thing. I also call the blue one Popo and the pink one Nana, but I may have that switched. Or the names may be completely wrong. Sorry.

**Chapter 7**

**29 Smashers remaining…**

Lucas tumbled through the trees, his own shout lost to the others surrounding him as the branches cut his skin but slowed him down enough to save his life when he finally hit the ground.

The blow knocked the air out of his lungs and he remained still for a moment, staring up through the trees before pushing himself upright, wincing at the pain in his back. That was sure to leave a bruise. He looked around at the others who'd escaped the ship with him, running a hand through his hair and dislodging at least fifteen leaves.

There was Bowser, Ganondorf, and King Dedede, who'd all fallen on top of each other and were fighting to roll away from the heap. Mario lying next to his sick brother, Luigi. An unconscious Sonic and Yoshi were dangerously close to the edge of a river, with Ness, Mr. Game and Watch, and Peach collapsed a few feet away from them. Pichu and Ivysaur were sticking close together as they maneuvered through the crowd of mostly sick, unconscious people, the few who were well rolling on the ground in pain. Olimar and his Pikmin were following the pokemon hesitantly, seeing, like Lucas, who had been trapped on their section of the burning Halberd.

Coughing slightly, Lucas got unsteadily to his feet and stumbled over to the two sick people who were on the verge of falling in the river. He pulled them back to safety before looking around for anybody to talk to to figure out what they were going to do now.

Lucas jogged over to where Mario was still looking over his brother. "Hey," he said, pulling Mario back. "Don't touch him. You could get sick."

Mario laughed bitterly. "Now that we're back down here, we're probably all going to end up sick. No use in prolonging the inevitable."

"Well, we might as well start moving- the Halberd didn't just fall out of the sky. Those elemental warriors caused it and they're probably hunting us right now."

Mario sighed, closing his eyes for a moment in exhaustion before forcing himself to his feet and calling for everybody's attention. No one who was awake and conscious was very keen on just waiting here like sitting ducks, and the general consensus was to get moving as soon as possible. Olimar, Ivysaur, and Pichu took care of transporting the six sick people as they started moving, heading in what they thought was back towards the Smash Mansion. That was the most likely place they could hope to meet up with any of the other Smashers- the fact that they'd managed to destroy the Halberd from the ground meant these warriors were more powerful than they had ever suspected.

"Pikachu, Pikachu!"

Toon Link opened his eyes to see Pikachu climbing from his stomach to his neck and purring into his neck. "Pikachu, Pikachu!"

He groaned. "I'm up, I'm up," Toon Link mumbled, but the moment he sat up, Pikachu nudged him over to the unconscious body beside him- Ash.

Swearing under his breath, Toon Link rolled over to check on Ash, catching sight of the two Ice Climbers waking up on the other side of Ash. "Pikachu, go check on the Ice Climbers, all right? I'll look over Ash," he ordered, sitting upright and feeling Ash's pulse. No slower or faster than was natural, and his fever seemed as high as before too- but Ness had only gotten worse after almost a week, and Ash had only been sick for a couple hours. It was going to take time.

"Don't worry, Pikachu, he's fine. What about Ice-"

"Pika pika pika!"

Frowning, Toon Link moved closer then recoiled in shock, pulling Pikachu back with him.

The Ice Climbers were both unconscious, but Nana just seemed to be asleep from the hard fall.

Popo had a fever and a nose bleed.

Lucario growled, pushing Mewtwo away from him seconds before he crashed into the hot yellow sand of the desert. Mewtwo simply came to a stop about an inch above the ground and continued levitating with a smug smile.

Glaring at him, Lucario got to his feet and dusted himself off before looking around worriedly. Thankfully, they had landed on the edge of the desert, near a forest, and the loose sand had provided somewhat a nice cushion for their fall.

Diddy Kong was currently nudging a sick Donkey Kong nervously, trying to wake him up but to no avail. Jigglypuff was following Mewtwo, Link and Zelda were talking in low, worried voices and Kirby and Meta Knight were looking up to the sky, where Meta Knight's magnificent Halberd had been only minutes before.

"Well, we know that these guys are done playing," Link said softly, drawing his sword and running his hand along the blade. "I'd love to fight them, man to man, without any of their special powers added in that mix."

"Don't think about, Link," Zelda advised. "These creatures are too powerful to be defeated by brute force. Whatever they are, they'v emanated to scatter us like dust in the wind, and we're _all_ accomplished fighters… I'm worried. About the others. What if someone who was sick ended up in the wild alone? How will we ever find them?"

Shaking his head, Link sheathed his sword and turned towards the forest. "We can't worry about that now. Right now, we have to find the others."

"How, though? We have no idea where they are!"

"Then we head to the Smash Mansion. That's our best bet."

Pit and Charizard, in the dark about how much trouble all the other Smashers were in, flew over the grassy plain, headed straight for the group of four people who were standing there, waiting for them. It was slightly unnerving, how they didn't even try to run.

"Confident, huh?" Pit snarled. "Let's go, Charizard! We'll show them how we really fight- not in the dark with hidden diseases! We'll show them!"

Charizard roared in agreement as they soared towards the ground, landing in front of the four warriors and preparing to fight.

The new group of six remained still for a moment before one of the group, a man with long brown hair, stepped forward and asked, "You… Pit and Charizard, right? How did you find us out here?"

Pit separated his bow into two swords and glared at them, keeping his silence. Charizard stretched his wings and took a step forward, growling furiously.

Another from the group, this one another male with long blue hair, shrugged. "Fine. I see you're not interested in talking. Are you here to fight us?" He was met with more silence, so he smirked and exclaimed, "Good with us! Although don't blame us when you lose and say it wasn't a fair fight. You're choosing to fight two on four. Go!"

The four jumped out of their stillness, rushing towards Pit and Charizard. A female redhead and the one who talked first ran to Pit while a young blonde and the one with blue hair attacked the Pokemon.

Pit found himself accosted with glowing fireballs that he was barely able to reflect with his blades and earthquakes shaking the ground beneath his feet. "What- how are they doing that?" Pit shouted just before another earthquake knocked him off his feet.

Meanwhile, Charizard was having his own problems. He found himself being attacked with cold blasts of wind and worse, water. He roared in pain and released a wave of fire at them in a desperate act- throwing the two back and knocking the blue one out completely.

The blonde gasped, taking a step back and shouting for the others to help. The redhead ran at Charizard, shouting, "You're lucky he's already exhausted! You won't be so fortunate with me!"

Charizard tried breathing fire on her but she barely seemed phased by it; in fact, she laughed at him and began fighting back with fire herself. It didn't seem to hurt Charizard too much either, but Pit was still struggling to get away from the man apparently causing all the earthquakes. Finally Pit was able to jump and hover in the air, so the earthquakes couldn't touch him, and began shooting arrow after arrow at the man.

The few that weren't dodged clearly caused a lot of pain until the blonde interceded, slashing at him with her sword so he was forced to revert to a defensive strategy. The redhead cried out and began fighting Pit as well, abandoning the man with brown hair to Charizard. When Pit was knocked out and thrown to the ground, Charizard was able to force his opponent back just long enough for him to grab Pit and jump into the sky, flying away to safety as fast as they could.

They'd ended up losing, but it was as close as anyone had gotten to beating these elemental warriors. If it had been four against four instead of two against four, they would of won.

It was a start.

_So sorry for the long wait. I got sick again, a lot worse than before, and had no motivation whatsoever to get up and update. Not totally better yet, but enough to do this. Sorry for making you wait almost a week._


	9. Chapter 9

Thanks for reviewing! Woo! I'm all better now! Goodbye, sickness, goodbye! I also need to hurry up and finish this, because I leave for Chicago in a week. So expect quicker updates!

**Chapter 8**

**28 Smashers remaining…**

Marth, Ike, and Dr. Mario walked along the river as they headed back towards what they hoped was the Smash Mansion, Squirtile dragging Roy behind them.

Squirtle frowned, feeling the harsh heat emanate from Roy's skin. It was so obvious how to fix what was wrong with him. He didn't know why the humans hadn't thought of it before and hadn't wanted to test his theory of a cure, but it was shaping up to be a long day and dragging this unconscious lump around was getting tiring. Based off Ness's progress, Roy was going to start getting worse very soon and Squirtle decided that it was worth the risk.

"Squirtle Squirtle!" he called, turning around so he was facing Roy and jumping on the human's face, spraying water all over him.

"Squirtle!" Ike exclaimed, turning around and pulling the pokemon off Roy. "Hey, what are you doing?"

Ignoring him completely, Squirtle squirmed out of his arms and jumped down towards Roy. He'd just swallowed some of the water and Squirtle could already sense his high fever going down, just slightly. "Squirtle Squirtle!" he exclaimed proudly, jumping over Roy's chest happily and rolling around in an circle around him.

"Hey, what's gotten into you?" Ike shouted as he started to approach the pokemon, glancing down to make sure Roy was all right.

Roy's eyes were open.

"Oh my god!" Ike gasped, dropping to his knees beside Roy. "Marth! Dr. Mario! Get over here; Roy's waking up!"

"What? But… that's impossible!" Dr. Mario cried, hurrying over and kneeling next to Roy worriedly, checking his pulse and his fever.

"You guys?" Roy asked weakly and coughed slightly. "What… what's going on?"

Marth stared in amazement, then gasped, "Squirtle! Squirtle, you did it!" They helped Roy sit up and he looked around at them in confusion. His fever was getting lower and Roy seemed to be weak, but fine.

Roy's teeth were chattering as he brushed red hair back from his sweaty forehead and leaned back slightly on his hands, Marth and Ike still holding up most of his weight. "I'm… it- it's c- cold," he stuttered, still in the dark completely about what was going on.

Dr. Mario sat down next to him, resting a hand against his forehead before swearing under his breath. "His fever's still high- lower than before, but high enough to make him feel cold."

Supporting Roy's back as the recently healed warrior looked down at the pokemon, Ike untied his cloak and draped it around Roy's shivering shoulders, Squirtle's cool body still resting against his feverish skin. "What's going on?" Roy asked again, absentmindedly patting Squirtle's head and looking around worriedly.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Dr. Mario asked, looking him over for any signs that he might not be well.

"Um… fighting Ganondorf with you two. What happened after that?"

Marth sighed in relief- Roy, Ike, and himself had all been fighting Ganondorf right before Roy passed out. "Well, remember how Ness was sick? You ended up with the same thing. About a dozen more got sick and we'd sent some scouts out, who couldn't find out why this was happening, so everybody left fled to Meta Knight's Halberd and we left- the scouts we'd sent out had found a possible lead and we were searching for another. That was before one of the people we were tracking sent up some kind of of column of fire and broke us up. We don't know where the others are, but right before we were hit in the sky, Ness got a lot worse. You would of been next, if Squirtle hadn't healed you."

Roy nodded slowly, trying to digest it all. "And now?"

"We're on our way to the Smash Mansion."

Ike glanced around nervously before announcing, "And we should continue doing that. It's getting late and I'd rather nor run into any of those creatures who blasted us out of the sky in the dark. We can catch you up, Roy, on the way. Can you stand?"

Roy hesitated, nodding uncertainly before slowly pushing himself up to his knees. Marth and Ike quickly slipped under his arms and pulled him to his feet, leading him towards what they hoped was the Smash Mansion. Dr. Mario walked in front of the trio and Squirtle jumped up on Marth's shoulder. Together, they set out to either meet up with the others or find the creatures behind this disease and turning the Halberd into a gigantic fireball in the sky.

* * *

><p>Falco could not believe this. Ace, M, and the other creature had been distracted by their arwings about ten hours previously and now, he and Wolf were hiding- they were trying to get back to their arwings.<p>

Problem was, M and the other one were standing guard beside the two landed arwings. Falco and Wolf could of just forced their arwings to fly off to another location and escaped then, but Ace was tracking them amazingly well.

Falco and Wolf were animals. Wolf, especially, could track things extremely well- but he had never seen anything like this. It was like Ace could read their minds and was a step ahead of them the entire time.

"Son of a bitch!" Wolf gasped after he sniffed the air and could still smell Ace on their tail. They had been running non-stop ever since Ace had realized they were gone and while they were exhausted, Ace wasn't letting up.

"We can't keep this up much longer, Wolf," Falco panted, glancing over his shoulder. Sure enough, there was a flash of blue about twenty yards back that was Ace following them. "He's-"

A loud, panicked shout interrupted Falco, and both he and Wolf recognized it as Ace. They looked back to see that they were no longer being followed- in fact, Falco could see that Ace was on his hands and knees. He cried out again, and Falco and Wolf didn't stop to marvel at this new turn of events. Now that they could finally focus, they called their arwings to their current location and focused on Ace, who wasn't moving.

"On our way out, I'll call Fox. He should of-"

"Look out!" Wolf's warning came too late; a limp body crashed through the trees and landed squarely on Falco's head. Falco collapsed underneath Captain Falcon and hit the ground hard.

Wolf stared down at the entangled bodies on the ground before pushing Captain Falcon off of Falco with his foot. Other bodies came falling through the trees, most around Ace, except for Snake, who fell near Captain Falcon. "What the hell?" he muttered under his breath as Ace cried out again, right before their approaching arwings could be heard.

Falco got slowly to his feet, his exhausted body trembling, pulling on Captain Falcon's limp arm. "Come on. I don't know what's going on, but I don't want to stay around to find out. We're lucky Ace is out- for now. You get Snake; I got this one."

"Wait, stop!" Wolf hissed. "Look at them; they're sick! If we stick them in that tiny cockpit with us, we'll get sick for sure! I don't know about you, but I'm not going to risk it."

Falco glared at him. "Well, I'm not leaving this two hear to get captured by Ace. It's too risky to get the bodies closer to Ace- plus we wouldn't have room for anyone else- but we're not leaving these two behind!"

Their two arwings descended through the trees, cutting through thin trunks and scattering the wood and leaves all around Falco and Wolf. Rolling his eyes angrily, Wolf heaved Snake over his shoulder and jumped into his ship, snapping, "If I get sick, you're dead."

"Wolf, if you get sick, chances are that you'll wind up dead."

* * *

><p>R.O.B. woke up to the sounds of two fierce, loud voices arguing. "Ace, how could you!" a woman's voice cried. "You let the falcon and wolf get away! What the hell is wrong with you?"<p>

Then there was a loud thump, like something being kicked, before another voice- this one, male- said, "M, calm down. We gave up two captives, but we gained two more. And it's not his fault; to predict so much at that exact moment? God, it's all that moron's fault. All he had to do was have the kid think about what was going on and Ace would of known. Instead, we've got a passed out Ace and two sick captives."

"Well, not for long. Ace healed them already."

"Which resulted in Ace falling unconscious. I told you both it was too soon! They could of waited! M, you never listen to me."

R.O.B. opened his eyes and analyzed his surroundings. It was unusually hot and it looked like the place had once been a forest. Now, though, there were particles of smoke in the air and in his line of vision, he could see several trees burning. He could also hear a few unusual sound waves not to far away from here that he didn't think were related to the forest fire.

"Oh, that's rich! I don't see you going after Ace for-"

"M! Shut up! I hear something."

There was a very high probability that the people R.O.B. was listening to were the warriors responsible for the disease, the disaster on the Halberd, and now, this forest fire. And if they didn't know who was making those noises… it had to be other Smashers.

If he distracted the elemental warriors, perhaps the other Smashers would hear and wouldn't be caught unawares… well, anything was worth a shot at this point.

Without another second of contemplation, R.O.B. had shot upright and fired a laser in the direction of the voices. He hit a woman, who had been arguing with a man other the unconscious body of another. She shouted in pain and staggered back a few steps, then turned and glared at him, practically snarling her distaste. "He's using heat," she laughed. "He's using heat and we're surrounded by fire. He can't hurt us. Robot, you just made a big mistake."

* * *

><p>"Nice to join up with you two again!" Fox exclaimed, her voice crackling through to sound in both Falco's and Wolf's arwings.<p>

"I told you we didn't need your help! We got out of there just fine on our own!" Wolf growled.

"Yeah, and now it's time for some payback! Team Star Fox, let's go!" The three arwings descended through the smoke and flames of the burning forest.

"Son of a- Falco, Wolf! We're attacking the other Smashers!" Fox shouted, pulling up in his flight sharply before he crashed into the crowd of Smashers hurrying through the forest. He pulled a 180 maneuver before slamming his hand down on t he controls in a panic, trying desperately to slow down- only about twenty yards away from the three warriors that Falco and Wolf had just escaped from were the other Smashers.

"They're going to meet if we don't do something!"

"Well, Falco, here's an idea for that- why don't we just obliterate these three morons? We're in the air, they're on the ground, shouldn't be too hard!" And before either Fox or Falco could stop him, Wolf was in a sharp descent towards Ace, M, and the other man, who were all currently engaged in a fierce argument.

Fox shouted in alarm when, instead of being destroyed in a blast of lasers, the woman screamed and a rope of fire erupted from her hand, catching Wolf's arwing in mid-air and holding it fast above the clearing. Wolf struggled to escape, but to no avail. "Help me!" Wolf cried in alarm. "Help!"

Fox tried to, but almost instantly ended up in the same situation as Wolf. Falco, luckily, maintained enough sense to stay out of range from those deadly ropes of fire and, instead, flew back to the Smashers to stop them from walking into this mess unawares.

He was too late.

Bowser, Ganondorf, King Dedede, Lucas, Mario, Olimar, Pichu, and Ivysaur all headed into the open clearing, the pokemon carrying the unconscious figures of Luigi, Mr. Game and Watch, Ness, Peach, Sonic, and Yoshi. Lucas and Mario, the head of the gang, froze, staring at the ongoing battle in horror.

Falco hovered above the Smashers, watching worriedly as the three elemental warriors turned to stare at the Smashers. M and the other creature crashed the Fox and Wolf into the ground, wrecking their arwings before turning to face the Smashers, preparing to fight.

"Fox! Wolf!" Falco shouted, landing his arwing next to theirs just in time to see Wolf and Fox climb from the burning wreckage of their ships. He jumped out of his own and hurried over to the incensed creatures, who both pulling their guns from their holsters and aimed them at the elemental warriors.

"Play time's over!" Wolf shouted, running towards them and joining the crowd of Smashers facing the three warriors. R.O.B., who'd somehow ended up as a captive of the warriors, joined the fight, with Wario, who'd also been captured, sick and unconscious on the ground.

"Well?" Ace shouted over the flames. "Are you all going to just surrender? If you do, it'll be easier for you in the end!"

No one said anything. The only thing that broke the silence was the crackling of the flames slowly taking down the entire forest.

"I see. Well, apparently you don't understand how powerful we are. You think you can fight us? You think you will survive?"

Once again, only silence responded to Ace's threat. The creature growled and raised his hand, ice crystals and water droplets forming around his hand, but M rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Relax, Ace. We all know that you could take them. I'd rather us take on the Smashers all at once, with the others to join us. I propose you let _us_ fix this. We'll lead these creatures to the Smash Mansion, where we can meet up with the others…" M raised her hand as well, and, together with the other man, who still had no name, they created a ring of fire to circle around the Smashers.

"Hey!" Mario shouted, running forward but jumping back with a yelp with flames moved closer to him.

"I don't think so," M said with a chuckle. "You won't be escaping any time soon. Now, come on. Follow us…. well, you don't exactly have a choice."


	10. Chapter 10

Thanks for reviewing! Note: Now, my 'X Smashers remaining' is going to relate to Smashers captured by the enemy, instead of how many are sick, the enemy heal any Smashers they captured, as I mentioned last chapter. All right, continuing on…

**Chapter 9**

**21 Smashers remaining…**

Charizard flew as fast as he could, Pit unconscious on his back. The four warriors they'd just fought had remained behind for several minutes after Charizard had fled, but soon the fire pokemon had found himself being hunted by four elemental warriors.

He was headed back in the direction of the Smash Mansion. Nobody would be there, as nearly everybody was on board Meta Knight's Halberd, but it was better than just flying off into the unknown while being chased by these creatures.

Pit stirred on his back and groaned softly, and Charizard felt the human push himself up into a sitting position. "Charizard?" he mumbled sleepily. "What's going on?"

In answer, he roared and stretched his long neck over his shoulder, gesturing with his head to the elemental warriors on the ground. Pit followed his gaze, than gasped and tightened his grip on his bow. "Palutena, help us," he muttered under his breath before diving off Charizard's back, rising on a thermal current and flying underneath him.

Toon Link and Nana walked slowly along the path, Nana dragging Popo and Pikachu pulling Ash along behind him. They were all exhausted. It had been about five hours since they had fallen from the burning Halberd and so far, they had found nobody in their track back to the Smash Mansion. When Toon Link had climbed to the top of a tree to try and see any familiar landmarks in the area and had only discovered a forest fire what looked like thirty miles to the northeast of their current location- probably where the most of the burning wreckage had fallen.

After stopping for a short rest, Toon Link and Pikachu both stood up and were about to start on their way again when they heard an explosion not too far away.

Toon Link drew his sword and whirled around, Pikachu mimicking his motions as electricity bristled in his fur. They left the edge of the river and hid in the trees as whatever had exploded knocked several trees out of the way, allowing them to see a group of four people- elemental warriors.

Three of them were standing still and glaring at a male with red hair, who laughed sheepishly and shrugged. "You defy the power of prediction," a blond male said. "_That's_ how ridiculous you are."

One with blue hair, and the only female in the group, nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Was it our plan to go crazy and practically create a volcanic eruption for that ship the Smashers were on? No! You probably gave Ace a seizure with everything happening all at one, as he's trying to cast Mind Read over such great distances already and that's not even his base power. You need to grow up."

The other three started walking and the redhead hurried after them, exclaiming, "Wait, come on! This one was just an accident!"

"Oh, just leave it. I don't know why exactly you just tried to create a forest fire a second ago, but blowing up their ship was completely unnecessary. They would of run into some mountains only a few miles from here and been forced to either turn around or land and we could of confronted them then. But no, now they're all spilt up! It's going to take days, even weeks to find them all!"

The four continued to walk down the path and Toon Link smiled grimly. He beckoned for Pikachu and Nana to follow as he gripped his sword tighter and hurried after them as quietly as possible. Finally. Elemental warriors still had the upper hand, but the Smashers had some leverage of their own.

* * *

><p>Link and Zelda led the way through along the bank of the river, twirling the Master Sword in a neat circle as he looked around for any sign that the elemental warriors had passed through here. "Well, what do you think?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder. "Will we find these people before or after Mewtwo and Lucario tear each other apart?"<p>

Zelda just sighed. "They way things are going, we're all going to starve to death before we make any progress. She ducked as a purple ball of pure energy that Mewtwo had aimed at Lucario sailed over her head and crashed into a tree.

Lucario was about to retaliate before Meta Knight shouted, "That's enough!" He turned and hurried towards the two pokemon. "Why are you two always fighting? If the elemental warriors didn't know where we were before now, the sound of that tree nearly exploding certainly gave them a nice hint to our location! Why are you two _always_ going at it? And don't give me the excuse that Mewtwo tried to take over all pokemon, Lucario- because Jigglypuff's here, and you don't see her trying to attack anybody!" As he spoke, Jigglypuff bounced by happily, green eyes wide and innocent.

Lucario raised his hand and a small orb of fire came to life above his palm. Meta Knight raised his sword and extended his wings, narrowing his gaze and preparing for a fight before Kirby bounced in between the two of them.

"You guys!" he cried. "Stop it! If we start fighting each other, then we'll never be able to stand together and fight the enemy!"

Lucario, Mewtwo, and Meta Knight remained in their standoff, caught between violence against themselves or the unknown enemy. Finally, Meta Knight lowered his blade and nodded. "As ridiculous and naive as that sounded, I agree. We fight each other every day of the year; it's time we stood together and fought somebody else."

"He's right," Link said after a moment, everybody gathering in a ring around Meta Knight. "We can't fight this menace like this- spread across the land into a dozen different factions, half the time pitted against each other rather than the enemy. Our best- no, our _only_ chance is if we stand together. Because we're all heroes in our own land; imagine the threat we pose united! Not like this, where everybody's either sick and unconscious or is fighting another Smasher. No- we've got to find the others, then stop running. Just because we don't know who we're facing… well, look at who we have on our side! Pokemon, Kirby and Meta Knight from the Dreamworld, Zelda, holder of the Triforce of Wisdom… we all hold something to our names. Surely we can fight back and prove ourselves stronger than whoever it is we're facing!"

"Yeah, and standing around here isn't helping!" Meta Knight shouted, raising his sword and spreading his wings. "Come on! To the Smash Mansion!" Everyone shouted their agreement as he took flight, running on the ground underneath him, their spirits renewed. It was only a matter of time until they found some of the others, and then they could finally make their stand.

* * *

><p>Samus slowly regained consciousness to find herself splayed out on the uncomfortable ground, her blonde hair loose and hiding half her face, which is what made her realize that she wasn't wearing her suit anymore. Groaning softly, she felt around for her gun, but only found an empty holster.<p>

Things weren't looking good. When she heard voices, Samus kept her eyes closed and waited for someone to say something that made this situation any clearer.

"Well? Any progress, Sev?"

"No. Well, not on this front, anyway. But…" The voice trailed off and Samus heard footsteps approaching. She tried to remain as still as possible as a hand touched her on the forehead. "Well, this one is awake, but she's trying to hide it."

Samus gasped, reflexively rolling away from the unfamiliar touch and jumping to her feet, sinking into a defensive stance as she looked around worriedly, apprising the situation.

Not good. There was a collection of eight warrior standing in front of her, all watching her quizzically and holding a variety of weapons, while all Samus had was her fists. They were the people she'd been tracking before, and her gaze instantly went to the one who had transformed into a wolf and she tightened her fists, taking several steps back.

They all laughed. "Even if we hadn't taken your equipment away, it would be an easy fight. Here," one said, unclipping Samus's gun from her waistband and tossing it to her. "You can even have this back if you want to fight us. We left your suit behind; too heavy to carry and besides, none of us would be able to hurt you too badly with our powers with that thing on."

Samus caught her gun, running a hand over it to check for any abnormalities as she kept her eyes on her opponents. "Well, it's one versus eight, might as well give me some advantage," she said before charging up her weapon and aiming at the wolf-girl.

Sev just sighed. "Are you sure you want to do this? We'll even fight you one on one if you want, but I must warn you, we don't fight fair. Not in this contest, anyway."

"I don't need you to make this easier," Samus snarled, and with that, she fired.

Sev ducked with speed faster than that of a human and growled, her eyes flashing dangerously. Taken aback, Samus jumped back and fired again, this time at a blond man who stood at the head of the pack and had yet to speak. Her shot blasted straight into a slab of rock that had appeared literally from nowhere in front of the man, who brushed it aside and laughed as it crashed to the ground.

"I guess you all weren't kidding about not fighting fair!" she shouted, holstering her weapon as she threw herself into the battle. If her gun couldn't do any damage, then maybe her fists could.

And they could. Samus smiled grimly as her foot connected with the blond one's head and he crumpled to the ground, but she didn't have time to enjoy her victory- seven more to go.

Luckily for her, these creatures were clearly exhausted, but she was well-rested, having just woken up from a nice, long nap, and she quickly wore down their remaining energy. It wasn't easy, not in the least, but within the whirlwind of blows, it was clear that she could win. Letting out a wild, animalistic cry, Samus kicked the second to last warrior in the stomach and smashed the butt of her gun into his skull. He dropped like a stone, leaving just her and Sev.

They paced around each other, the wolf girl laughing all the while. "You do realize that you haven't killed any of us? We'll all be fine. And you still can't win."

"Where's your confidence coming from? I just took out seven of you all at once. What makes you think you can defeat me?"

"Because," Sev said with a low chuckle, "I cheat." With that, Sev fell to all fours and roared, convulsing as she transformed into a wolf.

Samus laughed again, but there was anxiety behind it. Yes, she had faced much more hideous and deadly creatures before… but that was all with her suit and all the advantages that came with it. Now she had nothing but her own strength to rely on.

The wolf pounced.


	11. Chapter 11

Thanks for reviewing! I'm seeing the Hunger Games in three hours and am so excited!

**Chapter 10**

"Hey!" Marth shouted towards the ground, shifting his position and tightening his grip on the tree. "We're getting close! At least, I think."

"What'd you see?" Ike called from the ground below, taking a step back so he could get a better look at Marth.

"Well, I'm not sure, but I think I can see where we were when Ness got sick! We're not too far away- a day, maybe two, more!"

"Good!" Dr. Mario exclaimed, then focusing on Roy again, who was sitting on the ground and leaning up against a tree. "See anything else? Any other Smashers, maybe?"

Marth looked around the forest and sighed. "Nope, nothing! A couple of forest fires but I don't see the Smashers anywhere… well, I'm coming down now. No use staying up here much longer!"

As Marth started climbing down, Ike hefted Squirtile onto his shoulder and Dr. Mario felt Roy's fever. "Well, you're getting better. When we finally run into these bastards, you might be able to kick some ass."

"What do you mean, 'might'?" Roy demanded, crossing his arms and and slumping over his knees. "I'm not going to be sitting back on the sidelines and watching everyone else have some fun in a fight. No one gets an Akaneian warrior sick and gets away with it!"

"Stuck up moron," Ike muttered under his breath and drew his sword, raising it so sunlight reflected off the golden blade. "I'm even from Akaneia and I don't talk like that."

"Give him a break, Ike," Marth said, jumping lightly to the ground and landing in a crouch. "He's been unconscious for almost a week. Let him live a little."

"Yeah!" Roy exclaimed, getting to his feet and drawing his sword as well. "I don't need you guys babying me. I can fight, I can fight!"

"Oh, really-"

"Squirtle, Squirtle!" The pokemon cried out, breathing a stream of water out at the fighting warriors. "Squirtle, Squirtle!"

The force of the water knocked them all back to the ground. soaking their clothes and spilling into their mouths. "Hey!" Ike coughed, brushing his wet hair out of his eyes and leaning back on one hand. "Squirtile, stop it!"

Dr. Mario laughed, picking up the pokemon and setting him him on his shoulder. "Well, I see what Squirtle thinks about us fighting each other. Come on, you three. Up you get. We've got some more land to travel today. If we're lucky, we'll be at the Smash Mansion soon."

Chuckling, Marth and Ike pulled each other upright, their blue hair soaking wet. Roy rolled his eyes, his red-brown hair dripping water all over his clothes, and got to his feet as well. They walked down the path, Dr. Mario with Squirtle on their tail. They were making good progress. It was only a matter of time before the Smashers either reunited with their friends or found the enemy.

* * *

><p>"There, Fox," Lucas said softly as he finished wrapping part of his shirt around the animal's leg. "Should stop the bleeding for a while."<p>

"I know, I know. I'm a soldier, I've treated war wounds before," he said sharply, then continued limping forward. His right leg was cut badly from when his arwing had crashed. "And, Lucas? You do know that you have that ice power- 'PK Freeze'? Can't you use that to put out the fire theses bastards are using to keep us here?"

He nodded, clasping his hands behind his back and shaking his blond hair out of his eyes. "Yeah, I do. Mario already suggested it to me, but we decided to wait until we find the other Smashers. Then we'll have a better chance of fighting them and winning."

Fox gritted his teeth in both pain and annoyance before nodding in agreement. Fox limped closer to Falco and Wolf and began to discuss quietly their plan for action before Mario stopped them. "Wait!" he exclaimed, "Fox! Shh. We think that one of those people can read minds. Don't think about what's going to happen later. Think about something else and when we start fighting, you'll have to go in without a plan."

Fox could hardly contain his laughter; actually forcing himself to lean on his bad leg so the pain would distract him. "Read minds?" he chuckled quietly. "Yeah, right."

"I'm not kidding. We tested it earlier; we thought about trying to escape on one side of the circle and Ace stood guard there almost instantly. And after everything else that's happened? Trust us on this. Don't think about anything important," Mario ordered before looking around nervously. "I'm going to tell the others."

* * *

><p>Barely conscious, Samus gazed blindly at the ground, her eyes half-open. She moaned softly, a drop of blood from a wound on her forehead dripping into her eyes. The wolf-girl had torn her apart. She was slung over one of the elemental warrior's shoulders- after the wolf had knocked her out, the creature had healed all her teammates, dropping Samus in a slump over one of the human's shoulders, then taken off in another direction.<p>

She was bleeding a lot… too much. It didn't hurt anymore, and that was what warned her that she was losing too much blood.

Her vision blurred with a red haze and she closed her eyes, allowing herself to fall into unconsciousness… not even caring that if she went to sleep now, she probably wouldn't wake up.

* * *

><p>Breathing hard, Pit flew higher, flapping his sore wings over and over again before glancing over his shoulder- he and Charizard were still being followed.<p>

"Smash Mansion… is close…" Pit panted to Charizard, who roared in response. "Yeah, yeah… I know it doesn't mean much. We're still being tailed."

* * *

><p>"We're getting close. I can sense the others. They're near by. We'll be at the Smash Mansion in an hour, maybe less."<p>

Toon Link rubbed Pikachu's head softly and wrapped an arm around Nana's shoulders. This was good. They just had to keep following these elemental warriors and soon, they'd be at the Smash Mansion- with any luck, where the other Smashers and elemental warriors were gathering.

_We're in the final stretch, people! Short chapter, I know, but… we're getting there._


	12. Chapter 12

Thanks for reviewing! Kyanite Archer: Oh, you really need to see the Hunger Games. It's amazing. And I got Akaneia from Wikipedia, honestly; I've never played the Fire Emblem series either. All I know about it is that it involves Roy, Ike, and Marth...

**Chapter 11**

Charizard sank a little closer to the ground, both he and Pit hardly able to breathe. They'd been flying for hours and neither one could keep it up for much longer- luckily, it seemed even the elemental warriors were getting exhausted. They were no long being followed with the same vigor and whenever they looked back at their pursuers, they were slowing down. But then again, so were Pit and Charizard.

"To the top!" he gasped, pointing to the top of the house and flapping his wings harder. "Come on, Charizard! Just a little bit farther!"

With another hoarse roar, Charizard flew high enough to land on the Smash Mansion. The pokemon crashed into the roof and lay limp, breathing hard, while Pit curved to the left and slammed into the roof, coughing and gasping for breath, one sweaty hand grasping his bow, the other weakly holding onto the roof so he wouldn't fall off.

The elemental warriors on the ground looked up at them, one of them finally shouting, "The others are almost here! You're trapped up there now!"

Both were too tired to care, though. Pit and Charizard were content to wait up here for now, even though it meant engaging in a fierce battle soon against more elemental warriors then they even had a chance against.

* * *

><p>Pit awoke to Charizard thumping his tail repeatably on his shoulder and making a plaintive noise in his throat. "What, boy? What's wrong?" he asked, pushing himself up on his elbows and shaking his hair out of his eyes.<p>

Charizard growled and pointed to the ground, directing Pit's attention to the elemental warriors.

There were more.

Pit swore and sat up straighter, staring down at the creatures on the ground. About a dozen humans were gathered around a limp figure on the ground… Samus.

"Oh my god!" he gasped, pushing himself closer to the edge of the roof. "Samus! What… what's going on? Oh, Palutena… Charizard, what are we going to do?"

The expression in Charizard's eyes was enough to convince him- they had to go save her.

"All right, all right. We'll go- I'll grab Samus and fly her back up here- but we have to be fast. Charizard, cover me." The dragon nodded, then followed as Pit dived off the roof, his bow drawn. It wasn't until they got close to the ground that the elemental warriors noticed them, and suddenly, they were assaulted by a wave of energy that nearly knocked Pit out of the sky. Charizard roared and flew closer to him, shielding him from the brunt of the blast as he caught Samus's hand and pulled the unconscious woman off the ground.

That was when he saw that it wasn't all just humans fighting them- there was a god damn wolf right below him.

And Pit would of of loved to turn and just fly away right now, but he had things to attend to. Gasping in pain when another wave of heat hit him on his left, the side not protected by the pokemon, Pit swerved into Charizard and flew higher, struggling to maintain flight with Samus's dead weight dragging him down. Charizard roared in frustration before they rose up too high to be hit by the elemental warriors and they slowed down to land softly on the roof.

Sighing in relief, Pit exclaimed, "Thanks, Charizard! Now, Samus- oh my god!"

Pit and Charizard both recoiled back from the blonde, whose body was covered with vivid red cuts and scratches, gashes in her sky blue suit and blood stains coating her hair and skin. The woman gave a soft moan and shifted weakly, her eyes fluttering, and Pit continued staring for a moment before he ripped off part of his tunic, using the long strips of cloth to bandage her wounds.

"There. Is. A. Wolf. A wolf!" Pit exclaimed, glancing worriedly at the ground where the elemental warriors were gathering around the Smash Mansion. "Is there anything these bastards can't do?"

* * *

><p>By the time the landscape was starting to get familiar to all the Smashers, all those who had previously been sick had been healed, and everybody was preparing silently for battle. They would of been wary of trying anything, but the one who could read minds was seeming less focused now than before. He was hardly able to walk in a straight line and when Mario and Lucas had tested him by thinking about trying to escape, they hadn't noticed any change in his behavior. So the word had spread and the Star Fox team had their arwings following from behind, ready to head to the skies whenever it came time to fight. Lucas was preparing to freeze the flames to free all the Smashers and everybody was mentally getting ready for a fight.<p>

They were ready to break free and attack as soon as they hit the Smash Mansion- familiar territory, so they would finally have an advantage over the elemental warriors.

Which was there plan until they left the forest to see the Smash Mansion… already surrounded by elemental warriors.

Mario tried to stop Lucas and succeeded- but Wolf had already called his arwing out, and chaos ensued. Fox and Falco followed Wolf's lead and Lucas, seeing there was no point in trying to hide it anymore, froze the flames keeping them contained. Now there was no chance of them keeping themselves controlled; the Smashers rushed forward and ran right at the elemental warriors while the Star Fox team jumped into their arwings and flew forward, firing at the mansion and the enemy.

Samus had only just regained consciousness when war had descended on the Smash Mansion. Pit and Charizard were both staring in shock at the battle currently beginning below. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and Pit rested his hand on her shoulder automatically, still leaning over the edge of the roof.

"Oh, no… Samus, can you fight?"

The blonde blinked slowly and nodded, pushing herself up higher and wincing. "Yeah. Yeah, I think- well, I have to." She automatically reached for her gun, then grimaced when she remembered dropping her gun in the fight in the mountains. "Damn it. Well, take me down."

Pit nodded, crouching down and gesturing for her to climb onto his back. Once her arms were locked around his neck, he dived off the roof, Charizard following. They joined the fight on the ground, a bitter battle of ten Smashers versus twelve elemental warriors.

Or it was, until a group charged out of the tress, Meta Knight at the lead, and four elemental warriors converged on the Smash Mansion, Toon Link, Pikachu, and Nana close behind. Roy, Marth, Ike, Squritle, and Dr. Mario followed soon after, all prepared for a fight.

Finally, all the Smashers and elemental warriors in one place. No more running. The Smashers were ready to fight and they weren't going to flee this time.


	13. Chapter 13

Thanks for reviewing! Kyanite Archer: I honestly had no idea Pit was an angel when I wrote that. Only found that out, as well as the fact that he can't fly on his own, by playing Kid Icarus: Uprising. For anyone who hasn't played it... IT. IS. AMAZING.

**Chapter 12**

Fox and his team descend on the wolf, who was wrecking havoc among the Smashers and whenever any of the Smashers large enough to physically take the wolf approached, some sort of powerful wind blew them back. And, sure enough, Star Fox Team found themselves battling against a fierce gale and hardly able to stay in the air as they fired at the wolf.

Meanwhile, Ike and his group had finally reached the battle and were fighting the three most powerful warriors- Ace, M, and the blue-haired one. Ace was, by far, the strongest- he had managed to knock Olimar out without even touching him. Ike and Marth were thrown back by a wave of water and they struggled to stop from drowning as Ace held the water down on top of them. Ike finally broke the surface and pulled Marth up as well while Roy managed to distract Ace for long enough to allow his friends to escape.

"Help!" Roy cried when Ace raised his hands and suddenly, he was thrown into the air and being tossed around by the wind. "_Help!"_

Ike and Marth converged on Ace, who managed to battle them without freeing Roy. Ace drew his sword and fought off the two of them, even managing to wound Marth, who swore before continuing to fight with renewed vigor.

The pokemon were clearly having the most success; Pikachu and Pichu were making a very effective team against anybody who dared to approach them, and Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Charizard were practically invincible. Mewtwo and Lucario helped take on the wolf and, with help from the Star Fox team, they managed to drive her back- they thought she was out for good, but they only had a minute of rest before she was back, this time as a human.

It wasn't an easy fight, by any means. Yes, the Smashers were winning, but they also greatly outnumbered the elemental warriors- not a huge accomplishment. And they were still losing men fast; it took hours, but finally, exhausted and battered, the few Smashers left conscious were facing off against the trio with Ace, M, and their companion, the wolf-girl, and a blond and a brunette.

Fox, Meta Knight, Zelda, Toon Link, Pit, the pokemon, Lucas, and Ike all stood against the elemental warriors. No one was without injury, and even the pokemon were showing signs of exhaustion and some were barely on their feet.

"Well?" Pit gasped, his bow trained on Ace. "Give up yet? You're outnumbered."

"Yes. And yet none of you have managed to do more than scratch me," Ace said coolly, the only one left who had the strength to keep fighting for much longer. He crossed his arms and narrowed his icy eyes, brushing his long, light blue hair behind his shoulder.

"Ace, give it up!" Fox ordered. "You're not going to defeat us this time around."

Ace frowned and shook his head. "Now even the enemy calls me that. It's Alex! Please, call me Alex."

"Fine, Alex! Surrender! You're not going to defeat us!"

Alex or Ace, whatever his name was, just sighed and looked around at the two companions who had accompanied him throughout their long trek to the Smash Mansion. "Saturos? Menardi? You wan to explain it to them?"

The tall female with white blonde hair walked forward and glared at them, who they had previously called 'M'. "Alex is right. You can try and fight us if you want, but all you've done is take out the weaker members of our alliance."

"And Menardi is right, too," the final member of the Alex's trio agreed- he had to be Saturos. "Fighting us with them involved is child's play. But now you don't stand a chance."

"Wait!" Lucas exclaimed, crossing his arms and raising his head tiredly, leaning against the smoking remains of the Smash Mansion. "Before we keep on fighting and kill each other… what are you even doing here? Why are you trying to fight us?"

This time, the wolf-girl took the responsibility of answering. "Why? _Why?_ Oh, that's rich. They don't even know who we are. Isaac? Felix? Help me out."

"Fine," the blond said, stepping forward. "Well, you Smashers are an alliance created between the greatest warriors in this world and all the others. And when you first met years ago, there were only eight of you- no one took you seriously and there were a lot of great fighters who were left out. Then, a couple years later, there were over twenty of you- now there's over forty!"

The brunette nodded in agreement. "Yeah- nowadays, if you claim to be a great warrior but you're not part of the Smashers, no one takes you seriously. Hell, Sveta here can even transform into a wolf but no, not a member of the Smashers and you just _can't_ be that good a warrior."

The wolf-girl, Sveta, nodded. "And so we tried to become Smashers through conventional means- by becoming famous enough to just earn an invitation. But that wasn't working, and besides, who knows how long it'll take for you for the Smashers to let a round of new people in. So we decided on option two- just defeat you all. If we're the best fighters, you'd have to let us join."

"I suppose we have to thank you, though," the brunette- he had to be Felix- said. "Before we found about you, everyone here was always involved in a war against each other. Ever since we left to try and become Smashers, our world has progressed dramatically- if we go back now, they'll probably chase us off. So now, we need to defeat you, even more than ever. And we can take advantage of the fact that this place defies reality- Mario and Bowser can fight together, Link and Toon Link exist at the same time despite being supposedly placed in different timelines, and I'm positive that Ganondorf is supposed to be dead. After all, how many times did he die?"

"Exactly," Saturos said. "After all, Menardi and I are supposed to be dead. Joining the Smashers is the only way we can stay alive."

"So? What'd you say?" Menardi asked. "You want to let us join without continuing this fiasco?" The elemental warriors watched the stunned Smashers hopefully.

Zelda stared at them in shock before just shaking her head. "I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say _no! Hell no!_ For your information, I have heard of you guys from the Golden Sun series. I think you're great- well, I used to. But now? After everything you've done? Getting half of us sick, destroying the Smash Mansion, nearly killing all of us on the Halberd? Fighting us here? No!"

"Oh, please," Alex scoffed. "That disease wasn't going to kill anyone. Just a little thing I gave you all to throw you off base. And it wasn't even going to infect your pokemon; their powers are based off the elements, just like ours. And what are you talking about, destroying the Halberd? I didn't do that."

"No," Isaac said coldly. "Garet did. For absolutely no reason. And we are sorry about that; completely unnecessary. And the Smash Mansion… well, that was rather your fault for attacking so close to it. But, if you let us join, we could clean it up quite quickly."

"So, what?" Lucas demanded. "We should let you join just because you can clean up our house? No! And what are we doing, just standing around and talking? If you're not going to leave, then we _will_ fight you."

The elemental warriors looked around at each other for a moment, then just started laughing. "Our pleasure," Alex chuckled. "Our pleasure."

And then they were fighting again.

"PK fire!" Lucas shouted after they'd been at it for a couple minutes, a flame crashing into Alex's body and actually staggering him slightly. Lucas stared in amazement before shouting, "Charizard! Charizard, help me! It's fire! Fire hurts him!"

And as Lucas and Charizard began to battle against Alex, Fox flew circles around Sveta in wolf form, firing laser after laser down at the beast. He was winning, too, until Sveta jumped up and grasped the edge of his wing. She held on throughout all his attempts to throw her off and climbed higher on the arwing, holding on tight and completely out of range from Fox's blows. Swearing, the animal put his aircraft on autopilot and climbed out to the outside of his arwing, where he began to battle Sveta.

Meanwhile, Zelda, Toon Link, and Ike joined in against Isaac and Felix while Meta Knight and Pit went to help Lucas and Charizard. Isaac and Felix both seemed to have their powers based off earth and were causing earthquakes left and right. Zelda transformed into Sheik and lunged forward, getting too close for the creatures to use earthquakes without hurting themselves, and was able to distract them for long enough to get Zelda and Toon Link close enough to start really fighting.

The pokemon- besides Charizard- all teamed up against Saturos and Menardi. It seemed their base element was fire, which gave Squirtle a good advantage but left Ivysaur jumping back at every mood they made. Lucario wasn't having much affect against them, and Jigglypuff and Mewtwo were really only acting as a line of defense for Ivysaur.

Fox cried out in pain when Sveta's teeth sank into his shoulder, then kicked her away and punched her in the face. Sveta howled furiously and scratched at him before the Fox shot her, stunning her for a short second. It was enough for him to slap a smart bomb onto the ship before diving off the arwing, barely escaping before it exploded. He wasn't far enough away to escape entirely; the blast still hit him and threw him towards the ground. Sveta was blown towards the Smash Mansion before crashing towards the ground, landing on top of Fox. With a furious growl, Sveta bit his head and tried to rip off his ear before a passing blow from Ike knocked the wolf unconscious. She collapsed on top of the limp body of Fox.

Pit and Meta Knight flew in circles above Alex, Pit firing arrows, Meta Knight slashing his sword, while Lucas and Charizard attacked with fire. And for once, Alex was having trouble holding his own. "_PK Fire!_" Lucas cried while Charizard blew a continuous stream of fire at him. Alex wasn't out of the fight yet, but he was quickly tiring out, and it was clear that he wasn't going to hang on for much longer.

Toon Link and Isaac were engaged in a fierce sword fight, too close for Isaac to use his powers, Ike and Felix battling nearby. Sheik fought in between her friends, battling Isaac and Felix at once. And apparently, is wasn't enough that these creatures were masters of the elements; they had to be adept swordsmen, too. She kicked Felix in the chest before jumping into a dynamic gymnastics/martial arts routine more for show than anything else, but also dealt some damage to Isaac and Felix. She jumped into a handspring that landed on Felix's chest before kicking Isaac a couple times for good measure.

"Squirtle Squirtle!" the water pokemon cried, smothering Saturos with water and nearly drowning him, but Menardi pulled him out and slashed at Ivysaur with her sword, creating a bloody gash in his thick flesh. The grass pokemon, who had already been battered beyond belief by Saturos and Menardi, gave up completely and passed out. Pikachu and Pichu, furious, had descended on Menardi and attacked her, temporarily paralyzing her with electricity.

Mewtwo and Lucario were managing to take on Saturos by themselves, with Jigglypuff throwing out a couple blows here and there. It wasn't easy, but they managed to take Saturos down and knock him out- but it cost the Smashers Mewtwo. The pokemon fell to the ground, unconscious, slumping down next to Saturos. Menardi screamed in fury and tightened her grip on her sword, fighting harder and stabbing Pichu, inciting Pikachu into attacking her senselessly. Both of them were furious and exhausted, but Pikachu prevailed.

Saturos and Menardi gone, the other Pokemon joined in with the fight against Alex. Lucas was still continuously using 'PK fire', his only move involving heat or flames and the only one that had any affect on Alex. Now it was Squirtle who had the least advantage; Charizard and Lucas were still in charge of the battle. The fire pokemon roared furiously and attacked Alex, who retaliated by causing a geyser to explode from underneath Charizard, effectively putting him out of action.

Only three of the elemental warriors were left now- Isaac, Felix, and of course, Alex. Zelda- who had just transformed back- Toon Link, and Ike were tired, but holding up. Isaac and Felix were about to pass out from fighting hard enough to keep up with Toon Link and Ike, and a quick blast from Zelda's Din's Fire knocked them out.

Which just left a group of eleven Smashers… and Alex.


	14. Chapter 14

Thanks for reviewing!

**Chapter 13**

They were at a stand still- Alex surrounded by the eleven Smashers left. "Well?" Ike gasped, stepping forward and raising his sword. "There's more of us than you. Are you going to make us go through the formality of a fight or just give up now?"

Alex looked around coolly at the battered group of Smashers, who all were bleeding or clutching at broken bones, then looked down at himself. His worst injury was a cut on his shoulder, which seemed to be just a little painful and nothing else. "No. No, I think I'll take my chances with a fight. You see, I have the Golden Sun. I am, by far, the most powerful of all of you. Even the god of our land couldn't kill me. You think you can?"

Zelda glared at him and cast Din's Fire, but held the fire in her hand and snapped, "Yeah. Yeah, we do and we will. I don't know about your god, but all of us are strong enough to fight you and hold our own. If you want to go through with this, then fine. And maybe we can't kill you, but we can hurt you so badly you won't want to become a Smasher."

"Oh, I doubt that. I came here to get something with these friends of mine- albeit, weak friends- and I'm not going to leave until I get it."

They stood in silence for a moment, then the battle began again. And now they saw that that Alex wasn't lying about being the most powerful of the elemental warriors- if anything, it was an understatement. Now it was becoming clear that before, when he'd been fighting the Smashers and defeating them each time, he had been holding back. And when they'd finally gotten a good shot at hitting him- Charizard, Lucas, and Zelda all about to strike at the same time- he disappeared.

Disappeared.

The flames collided in the empty space amid laughter from above them. The Smashers jumped away in shock and looked around nervously before finally finding him on the roof of the Smash Mansion.

He laughed again and shook his head at them. "You can't catch me!" he called down before pulling back from the edge as Pit took aim and fired.

Charizard stretched his long neck and roared before slamming into the Smash Mansion- after all the abuse it had taken from the arwing battle that had previously just been fought around it and all the other explosions from the elemental warriors' attacks, Charizard's blow had enough force behind it to bring the mansion down entirely.

There was a shout from the roof as it crashed down to the ground. Alex tumbled from the top and landed on his hands and knees right in front of Charizard who let out a stream of fire at his head as Ike ran at him, his sword raised to strike.

Alex screamed it agony and threw himself out of the way, drawing his sword with one hand and raising the other, shouting, "Storms! I summon you! Give me strength!"

Zelda and Ike laughed before charging at him, then froze at the sound of thunder.

Storm clouds were rolling in faster then they thought possible, rain already falling down onto the Smashers and dousing the remaining flames on Alex's torso. The creature laughed, his icy eyes flashing dangerously as he pointed his sword at the Smashers. "Still confident?" he shouted over the thunder, the suddenly frequent flashes of lightening turning his pale form into a dark silhouette.

Trembling slightly, Zelda conjured another ball of fire only to have the rain put it out. Alex laughed at her again and shook his head, water droplets glistening on his face and in his hair like ice. "I live in this world! I am as powerful as a god!" he shouted, raising his arms to the sky. "Storms! Water! That is my power- and you… you all have nothing!"

The Smashers all looked nervously at each other, torn between uncertainty and terror, before Ike stepped forward and raised his blade. "You're no god! You're not all powerful! If you were, then you wouldn't have fought like this to become one of us! You're nothing but a liar and a cheat, Alex! You won't get away with terrorizing us all by calling yourself a god."

Alex's eyes narrowed and he shook wet, light blue hair out of his eyes. "No… I'm not all powerful. The god from my world wouldn't let that happen. I stole the Golden Sun, yes, but not all of it. The god gave a small part of it to one you've already fought- Isaac." He pointed at the limp blond on the ground, then growled, "But I have enough of it! I have enough to be more powerful than all of you! I may not be a god, but I'm close- closer than you'll ever be!"

"Doesn't matter. We don't care how strong you are; the reason we're here as Smashers is because we're heroes in the worlds we're from. Not tyrannical dark overlords- and we''re not about to let one of you get what you want from us!" Lucas cried before attacking Alex- for the last time.

The storm continued brewing overhead, rain pelting down on them as the Smashers and Alex locked in combat. As the rain was putting out any attempts of to use fire against him, they had to rely purely on physical strength. Alex, however, was fighting with the element of water on his side and continued teleporting to different locations around the battlefield, catching the Smashers unawares and crushing them every time.

Slowly the odds got worse and worse from the Smashers, from eleven to one, to eight, to five, and finally, to three.

Ike, Lucas, and Toon Link versus Alex.

But now they knew why Alex had been holding back before- it was exhausting to him. It was clear he was growing desperate and he was moving slower now. His attacks with water were growing weaker and his blows with his sword weren't as strong. On top of that, he was no longer able to stand tall and proud with any injuries- he was finally just as battered as the Smashers.

"I'm a god!" Alex cried, gasping for breath, leaning on his sword for support. "You can't do this! I'll fight you as many times as it takes to defeat you! I can hold it up! Let us fight, over and again, until you finally give up."

Bruised and broken, Ike stood at the head of the trio and shook his head. "No. We will fight, _over and again_, as many times as you'd like, but you won't prevail. It's time we ended this…" He closed his eyes for a moment, then pointed his sword skyward, his eyes flashing red as he charged at Alex, shouting, "_Great Aether!_"

"_PK Starstorm!_"

"_Triforce Slash!_"

Ike shot up into the air, slashing at Alex repeatably with great, powerful strokes while Toon Link attacked from the other side, trapping Alex within a spiraling Triforce to stop him from escaping. Lucas, encased in an electric ball, hovered right on top of Alex, surrounding him in electricity and stopping him teleporting.

Finally, Lucas, Ike, and Toon Link descended lightly to the ground, all breathing hard, as Alex, finally unconscious, fell limply to the ground and collapsed, out cold. The Smashers had won.


	15. Chapter 15

Thanks for reviewing! Next chapter is the last, people! And don't worry, it's very long to make up for this tiny, puny thing here.

**Chapter 14**

"He's in a coma," Dr. Mario explained as Ike wrapped wrapped a bandage tightly around his broken ankle. "And yet, sadly, he is stable. After everything he put us through and the hell you did to him, he'll be fine… depending on whether he wakes up or not."

"I don't care," Ike said bitterly. "He can rot in hell for all I care." Lucas and Toon Link nodded firmly in agreement.

Dr. Mario just sighed. He'd regained consciousness about an hour previously to Ike shaking him violently and splashing water in his face. Dr. Mario had awoken to a scene of total chaos- surrounded by Smashers, unconscious and beaten, but his first order of business had been tending to Alex- no one wanted him to wake up and begin to cause havoc again.

"Well, I also looked at the other elemental warriors. Found all eighteen of them… not all of them made it, and the ones that did just barely survived. Eight of them are alive, the rest didn't make it. And, if you will excuse me, I have other people's injuries to treat. And in a fair world, you three would get to rest for fighting so hard before- but there are four of us and nearly thirty of them. Come on." Getting to his feet with the aid of a crude crutch, Dr. Mario limped towards the other Smashers with Ike, Toon Link, and Lucas behind them, each with their own bandages and casts.

The air was heavy with the smell of death and blood. After Alex had passed out, the storm had abated to become a light drizzle for a few minutes, then stopped raining altogether. Together, the four of them sloshed through the mud and ashes from the remains of the Smash Mansion, coughing as they tasted the smokey air. Dr. Mario stumbled over Ash's feet, then hesitated before stopping their search through the unconscious bodies and saying, "I'll look at Ash. He can fix up the Pokemon and save us a great deal of time- especially since I work with humans. I have no idea how to heal Pokemon."

He leaned down to check Ash's pulse, then pulled back in shock when Ash's eyes fluttered open. "Wha… what's going on?" He muttered, pushing himself up onto his elbows. "Dr. Mario? What the…"

"Welcome back, Ash," Dr. Mario muttered, amazed, and felt his pulse. "How do you feel?"

"I… I'm fine. What on earth is going on?"

He smiled slightly and gestured around at the carnage surrounding him. "We won. Alex and the others lost. Listen, Ash, I know you just woke up, but-"

"Wait, Alex? Who on earth is Alex?"

Dr. Mario frowned. "Alex. You know… the head elemental warrior?" Ash's face remained blank. "Ash, what's the last thing you remember?"

"Being on Meta Knight's Halberd."

"Oh! I remember, you got sick on the Halberd; you don't remember the Halberd being hit and the final battle… but how… oh. I guess Alex's rain healed you guys. Well, Ash, I can fill you in later; we're running on kind of a tight schedule here. But the elemental warriors fought the pokemon and won. I need you to check up on them and make sure they're okay, all right, Ash?"

"Pikachu!" he gasped, sitting up straighter and looking around for his friend in a panic. Shaking his head and smiling slightly, Dr. Mario continued looking through the Smashers, helping everyone he could.

It was late the next night when the last Smasher died- not only the elemental warriors had sustained casualties. The heavy, violent fighting in the final battle had taken its toll on all of them- some more than others.

Diddy and Donkey Kong, both- it seemed fitting that they would go out together.

Yoshi and Wario, from the Mushroom Kingdom. Survivors from Mario's world were on the constant verge of going to the living elemental warriors and tearing them apart.

Mr. Game and Watch. No one had ever quite understood what he was saying, but that didn't mean the remaining Smashers didn't fight to avenge his death.

Ganondorf. Even if he had always fought against Link, Zelda, and Toon Link, no matter the timeline, no matter the universe, it was a mere result of an ancient curse. Out here, in the world where the words of long dead dark overlords didn't apply, the other holders of the Triforce found him to be a true warrior.

They would be missed.


	16. Chapter 16

**I AM PROMISING NO SEQUEL! MAYBE I'LL WRITE ONE, MAYBE I WON'T, BUT I AM PROMISING NOTHING! **Thanks for reviewing, everybody!Well, it's good I finished this story now. I leave for Chicago tomorrow- five day trip! It's been a pleasure writing this for you all.

**Chapter 15**

Without the Smash Mansion, the Smashers who could work had been forced to convert the plain near the river to an infirmary. Everybody needed a couple of good hours sleep in a bed rather than on the ground, and it was lucky that while the Smash Mansion itself had been destroyed, much of the furniture had survived- including the beds. Sheets, clothes- pretty much everything that could- had been converted into bandages while most of the other furniture had become casts.

No one was quite sure what to do with the bodies of the dead. They were all for simply burning the dead elemental warriors, but as for the Smashers? It wasn't as if there was a cemetery out here. This world was supposed to be a paradise... where no one could die. And now that illusion was shattered, just like everything else.

* * *

><p>Link looked over at Zelda, who was sleeping lightly in her own bed, then winced and rolled onto his side. It wasn't as if he wasn't used to injuries in battle; Hyrule wasn't exactly the most peaceful realm to live in. But this was different.<p>

Here they were. An alliance of forty three of the greatest fighters from all over the universe- and yet, less than twenty warriors from a world he hadn't even heard of had nearly managed to defeat them all. Hell, this Alex had taken on eleven Smashers at once and had nearly won- he had single-handedly taken out eight of them, after all.

He sighed, grimacing as he pulled at the strap of the sling that chafed uncomfortably on his neck. Link couldn't believe that he was stuck in bed until his ribs healed, and even then, his shoulder would still be dislocated. Still, he was better off than Zelda.

Link looked up at the princess and winced in sympathy. She had been the fourth warrior left against Alex- the last one standing who hadn't been one of the final three. Ike had told him that she'd been hit by one of his deadly geysers. Broken leg, broken ribs, and too many bruises to count.

His princess was hurt, and this time, he didn't know what to do. Back in Hyrule, the two of them often fought through the final battle against Ganondorf together. And Link had always stood by her side, through thick and thin, and battled through hell to save her. But fighting the elemental warriors had been so different than going against Ganondorf. They were so much stronger. Alex, especially- from what he'd heard, the creature hadn't even broken a sweat until it had been him alone versus the last eleven Smashers.

Ganondorf... it made no difference that, back in the world of Hyrule, Ganondorf would be reborn over and over again, a reincarnation of hatred from an ancient curse. _This_ Ganondorf, in _his_ lifetime, was gone forever. And in this realm, where they were no longer forced to become a trio causing destruction and violence throughout the world... he was their friend.

Except not anymore.

Zelda sighed, rolling onto her left side, soft brown hair falling over her eyes. "Zelda?" Link asked uncertainly. "You awake?"

With another groan, she nodded, her eyes still closed. "Yes… what is it, Link?" '

Rolling his eyes and smiling slightly, Link called softly, "Zelda, wake up. If you do, I'll play wolf with you."

"No, Link, it's too early for… that…" Zelda finally opened her eyes, then frowned and looked around in confusion. "Link, what's going on?"

"Remember? Alex?"

Zelda sighed sadly and nodded. "Please don't remind me. I remember fighting him with Toon Link, Lucas, and Ike…"

"Right," he encouraged. "Taking you out of the fight tired him out enough to be taken down when the three Smashers left used their final smashes on him."

Shaking her head, Zelda pushed herself up straighter with a wince, then looked over at him worriedly. "Well, what's wrong with your arm?"

"Dislocated shoulder- and some broken ribs. You've got a broken leg and ribs as well. Sorry. Look's like we'll both be stuck in bed for a while."

She groaned. "Well, that's just wonderful… wait. Link- I know it's not a permanent fix, but wouldn't transforming into a wolf give you an nice temporary body to use. And since I can't walk right now, you can give me a ride around this place so we don't feel useless."

Link laughed softly and rolled his eyes. "Zelda! Stop. I'm not going to go into wolf form for that."

They both laughed again, the sound awakening the person asleep in the bed next to them- even as Link began to tell her the news that would put a stop to their laughter for quite a while.

"Lucas? What's going on?"

Lucas looked up to see Ness was awake. "Welcome back, Ness- but I'll talk to you in a second. We have a serious need for a set of extra hands, so I'm helping out by checking on Samus."

"Samus? Why?" Ness asked, sitting up straight and looking over at Lucas and Samus, then gasping in shock and horror. Samus didn't have her suit on, so he could see her thin frame covered in scarlet blood and violent, painful looking gashes. "Oh my god!" he gasped, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and getting unsteadily to his feet. "Lucas, what happened?"

"I'm not sure if you remember- when we were fighting earlier, that wolf? I don't know everything, but according to Pit, the wolf attacked Samus. Pit tried to fix her up, but it was before the final battle, so it wasn't like he had much time to give her attention. And she continued fighting afterwards."

Ness took a look at his cousin, wincing in sympathy. Lucas looked exhausted, and his left arm was in a cast. There was a nasty bruise on his forehead, almost hidden by his blond hair. "Hey, Lucas," he said, walking slowly over to him and Samus, holding his arms out for balance. "Let me look after her; you get some rest."

Lucas looked up at him bitterly and shook his head. "No, Ness. You've been sick; anyways, Dr. Mario's already shown me everything I need to do for Samus. And after her I need to check on Pit, and-"

"Let me, Lucas. You look exhausted; I can at least help with Pit."

Lucas glanced over his shoulder at Ness, appraising him for a second, then shrugged. "Hey, if you want to knock yourself out, your choice. Go check on Pit over there, but you need to be careful. You got hit in the head pretty hard in the earlier fight and Dr. Mario said you should take it easy."

Ness shook his head good-naturedly, limping around Lucas to see Pit. The messenger of the goddess was sitting upright and gritting his teeth in pain, grasping his left wing and muttering incoherent curses under his breath. "Pit?" he asked worriedly. "What… what's wrong?"

Pit looked up at him, shaking dark brown hair out of his eyes and wiping the bead of sweat of his forehead. "Broken wing," he explained. "None of you people have any idea how painful this is. Ow!" he gasped, curling into a tighter ball, his wing twitching as Pit moaned.

"Um… well, it's not as if you can actually fly with-"

_"Not helping!"_

"Well, I don't know what to do! I'm not an angel! Would an ice pack help? Lucas could-"

"No! Splinting it would!"

"Well, stop moving!" Ness exclaimed, hurrying forward and hesitantly placing a hand on Pit's shaking wing. "Well, let me try and help, at least! Come on, hold still."

Meanwhile, Ash was busy flying over the ruined landscape on Charizard's back, running a bandaged hand over his head. "Come on, boy. Ivysaur's still hurt and we need to find that plant he asked for- supposed to make him feel a lot better."

Charizard flew lower, closer to the river, both he and Ash searching the banks for the plant. Ash leaned over on Charizard's back, rubbing his neck affectionately as he examined the ground closely. "You know, you did good today, Charizard. Fighting Alex like you did. Squirtle and Ivysaur did, too. I've got a great pokemon team."

The pokemon roared happily, then descended to the ground and lowered his neck, nudging a flower that grew near the side of the river. "Nice job, Charizard!" Ash exclaimed, jumping off his back and walking over to examine it. "How'd you see that from all the way up there? Good boy! Come on, let's get this back to Ivysaur. Then I can take care of Pikachu; his tail's sore and I promised him something special for fighting so well earlier today."

Charizard stretched his wings and rested his head on Ash's shoulder, prompting him to smile as he climbed back onto the pokemon's back. "Don't worry, boy. Just because Pikachu's my starter doesn't mean I don't love you and the others, too. You, Squirtle, Ivysaur, and Pichu are all great. Now, come on. Let's get back to the other Smashers. Things have been rough lately and they need everybody they've got."

Charizard's answering happy roar was all the answer he needed.

* * *

><p>"How's your head, big guy?" Marth teased, glancing over at Roy, who glared at him.<p>

"Shut up, Marth. Ike, stop laughing," he snapped, reaching up to his head and scratching the bandage on his head.

Ike, whose arm was in a sling, just shook his head and continued laughing. "Oh, Roy. Does this give you a headache?"

"Yeah," Marth said, poking Roy with his sword and shifting slightly, his casted leg propped up on a pillow, a bloody bandage wrapped around his ankle. "If there's anything we can do to make you feel better, please tell us, so we can refuse you-"

"Both of you, shut up. You're only mad because after my head feels better in a couple days, you're both still be hurt. Ike, you'll be doing everything one-handed until your broken bones heal, and Marth, you'll be in bed until your leg heals up."

Marth and Ike glared at him sullenly before Ik stretched his sore muscles and stared at the sky. "Well, at least I'm one of the three that dealt the final blow to Alex. You can't claim that, Roy."

"Give it up, Ike," Roy muttered. The trio from Akaneia lapsed into silence, all three sore and tired. Ike closed his eyes, falling asleep as Marth used the remains of his cape- most of which had been used to bandage his ankle- to polish his sword, and Roy stared up at the slowly darkening sky.

* * *

><p>"There you go," Peach said, holding Mario's hand and helping him walk around his bed. "How's your leg feel?"<p>

He shrugged. "All right; not too bad. I'm better off than Toon Link, anyway."

"Want to go see him? I'll take you, if you want."

He shrugged. "Why not- I'm sure he's lonely, as Link and Zelda are both laid up right now. And thanks, by the way, for walking me around, Peach. I appreciate it."

"It's nothing," she assured him, pulling his arm over her shoulder. "I'm just glad you're all right. Those elemental warriors nearly took us all out."

"Yeah- hey, do you know what we're going to do to them? I heard they're not all dead."

Peach shrugged uncertainly. "I'm really not sure. I know that Alex is in a coma, so we don't need to do anything about him for now, but the others? Without Alex, they're not strong enough to be a real threat to us."

Mario nodded before hesitantly sliding out from under Peach's grip and taking a few steps on his own. Satisfied, he slid his hand into the princess's, allowing his thoughts to drift to the fallen soldiers from the Mushroom Kingdom.

Wario and Yoshi. Yoshi had taken part in all his adventures to save the princess. Whether it was on top of her castle or in a egg in a galaxy far, far away, he had always been there. And now?

Gone.

Wario. Mario hadn't honestly known him too well, but he was helpful. Or he could be helpful when he chose to be. Or... well, whatever his p purpose was, it wasn't to be slaughtered by Alex!

Shaking his head at the worthlessness of it all, Mario turned the corner and approached Toon Link's bed. Toon Link's shoulder was broken- according to Dr. Mario, he needed surgery or it could take several months of heal, and as there was no possibility of surgery working out in the wild, in Toon Link's words, he was screwed. Not to mention the fact that without any painkillers, he was in a world of hurt. And, as if the universe was trying to just make Toon Link entirely miserable, he also had a broken ankle. Not a severe enough injury to do anything but inconvenience him, but made walking difficult and Toon Link wasn't happy about it at all.

"Hey, Toon Link," Mario said softly, looking down at the little hero. The blond looked up at him and just sighed. His arm was in a sling; beyond that, they couldn't do anything for the pain. Mario shrugged apologetically. "Sorry. As soon as Ivysaur's up to it, he's promised to go out and look for any plants that can serve as rudimentary pain killers, but, until then…"

Toon Link glared at him, then gasped in shock then there was a loud, pained cry from near him, followed by a soft groan. "Oh, thank god…" came Pit's voice from around the corner. Peach frowned, walking closer to see Pit lying on his back, breathing hard, a make-shift brace on his left wing. "Thanks, Ness!" he exclaimed, closing his eyes with a smile.

"Oh, that's rich," Toon Link growled. "All he needs is a little brace and voila, good as new. Jackass."

Mario tried to smile encouragingly and patted his good shoulder. "Sorry. You'll be up and around before you know it, Toon Link."

* * *

><p>Fox put a hand to his head as he heard Toon Link cry out again from behind him. "Ow," he complained, unzipping his jacket with his un-bandaged hand. "Well, on the upside, Falco, at least I can say that I've tangled with a god and lived."<p>

"Fox," Wolf snapped, "For the last time, Alex isn't a god, and you were attacked by that wolf-girl, not Alex."

"Well, it still makes for a good battle story!" Fox argued. "Come on- I was fighting a wolf on the outside of a flying arwing!"

Falco waved him off, kicking up his broken ankle gingerly and placing it on the end of Wolf's bed. "That's no war story- at least, it's not as impressive as Ike, Lucas, and Toon Link taking out Alex like they did. Admit it, Fox, after this whole ordeal with these elemental warriors, all three of us have got some good war stories. Hell, all the Smashers do."

* * *

><p>Many of the Smashers leaned against others for support. Nearly all were sporting dark bruises and bloody cuts hardly obscured by dirty bandages.<p>

But this was something that couldn't wait.

"We are all here today for one reason- to give our fallen the proper send-off that they deserve." Mario's announcement hung in the still air as he turned to the forest, so much of it ruined by forest fires that continued to rage many miles north of the site of the former Smash Mansion.

"We buried Donkey Kong and Diddy Knog in the forest. It was there home, and it seems right that they be returned to it, in the end," Samus said, clasping her hands behind her back and bowing her head.

"To those from our world, Yoshi and Wario, we pay our respects. We have preserved their bodies and, as soon as they are able, the Star Fox team will fly them back to the Mushroom Kingdom so they, too, can rest in the home world."

Link carried on from where Mario had left off. "Ganondorf, from my homeland of Hyrule, fell too. He may not be a hero where we come from, but he died fighting to defend us, and for that, he deserves to be honored as a hero. His body, too, has been preserved, so he can be flown back to Hyrule and put to rest there."

Fox, the only one of the original eight Smashers left who had yet to speak, pointed at the remains of the Smash Mansion and continued, "And finally, last but certainly not least, Mr. Game and Watch. He didn't really have a homeworld, aside from the two dimensional planes he called home. But, as we have no way to return him there, he instead buried him on the foundations of the Smash Mansion. He precedes all of us. And so, we buried him in the most fitting place that we could."

"We can not let them die in vain. We have already defeated the elemental warriors, but that is not all we can take from their deaths," Mario called. "Just because we are all convened here and labeled as the strongest force in this world and all others doesn't mean we're gods. It doesn't mean we're not too strong to be torn apart. We can not allow ourselves to be lulled into the safety of this world again and forget that there are still villainous forces out there. We are still human- for the most part- and can die just as easily as they do. We can not forget that. We can not forget those who died to defend us."

Silence reigned over the clearing. The sun began to set as Link drew his sword, raising in honor and respect for the fallen. The dying rays of light reflected off the blade as others copied his movement, as a final send off to those who were no longer with them.

**Epilogue **

Everyone who wasn't spending most of they're time asleep or gasping in pain was now trying to discuss what to do to the elemental warriors.

Dr. Mario raised his one good arm to try and get everybody's attention. "Look, I think that we all agree that Alex can be dealt with differently than all the others. And since he's in a coma, we can deal with him last. But what about the other elemental warriors? They want to join the Smashers, obviously, but are we going to let them?"

"No!" Ike cried. "No way in hell. After everything they've done? _Hell no!"_

"Well then what do we do with them? Ike, we can't send them off back to where they came from- they can come back later with even more warriors like that Alex! We can't risk that."

Pit sighed and shook his head. "Well, then what are we going to do? I mean, we can't kill them, we can't send them back to wherever they came from, and they're not going to just sit back quietly when we tell them we're not letting them become Smashers."

Silence ensued as they looked around at each other, no one volunteering an idea. The meeting lapsed into a lull as everyone contemplated the impossible situation before them… and then was interrupted by Toon Link.

"We've got a problem."

"I'm sorry," Fox apologized again, rubbing his head. "I don't know what happened."

Mario looked around the clearing nervously, but there was no sign of the elemental warriors- they were gone.

The Smashers that were able had been guarding the remaining elemental warriors until they decided what to do- and now, all but Alex had vanished. Fox, who had been guarding them, had been found unconscious on the ground with a note attached to his lapel:

_**We'll be back**_


End file.
